But as a team, the Spartans won’t have much time to apologize to the coaching staff for being too soft and lackadaisical in their second week of practice — as the 14th-year head coach plans to swamp his squad with two-a-days, one practice immediately followed by another after a short break.

“I don’t think we’re going hard enough and that’s been a little disappointing,” Izzo said. “We weren’t very sharp (the last couple days). I was disappointed in the way we were led today. We’ll get a couple two-a-days in this week to make up for it.”

Part of the problem has been taking care of the basketball, an issue that came up quite a bit last season, when MSU turned the ball over 490 times, averaging out to 13.6 turnovers a game.

One factor that sophomore guard Kalin Lucas sees helping their cause is the scout team, who scrimmages against the Spartans and pushes them to the edge, doing everything in their power to train MSU for battle against the competition throughout the season.

Voraciously vocal

One key to the Spartans’ success of the past has come from an extremely vocal group of guys showing intensity not just at booming Breslin Center, but on the practice courts as well.

But a few guys still haven’t hit their vocal peak according to Izzo.

“Kalin has really stepped up except for the last few days, but I’d like him to get more vocal,” he said. “I’d still like (more from) Raymar (Morgan) too and Korie (Lucious) to speed that process up.”

Izzo said when Morgan is talking, whether it be in practice or in a game, he plays the best basketball he’s ever seen out of the junior forward.

“(Monday) he made every single shot and he was just more into it,” Izzo said.

And the team will be in even better shape if Lucious can learn to really get loud early on in his career, continuing to increase his hype meter every time he steps onto the hardwood.

“I’ll start doing that more and more,” he said. “My favorite part of practice is the practice itself, how competitive and intense it is every day. In high school practices, we didn’t play as hard or get as loud. Here, the gym is always loud and everyone goes 100 miles per hour. All the energy has really helped me a lot and it makes me play a lot faster, a lot stronger and a lot harder.”