The jersey retirement of Peterson, who Gray said is like a brother to him, gave extra motivation to the 6-foot-8 senior, prompting Gray and Izzo to have a heart-to-heart talk Friday night that nearly went to 11 p.m.

“We were having a team meeting last night and everybody left and I was sitting there looking at (Gray) and I said, ‘I think your problem has been more effort related than skill related,’” Izzo said. “ … I told him, the (Antonio Smith’s) and (Mateen Cleaves’) and (Peterson’s), you come from the same place. It’s a working man’s city and I have faith in you if you work, and he said that’s all (he) wanted to hear.”

Gray, a former five-star recruit who came into the season averaging 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds a game in three injury-riddled seasons, said he wasn’t thinking about being a spark for his team on an emotional night. Instead, Gray said he tried to take the advice of Peterson. Just play ball.

“It helped me a lot because it’s hard to play when you have a lot of stuff on your mind because you’re angry about certain things,” Gray said of the meeting between he and Izzo. “As much as I don’t like to admit it, the majority of the stuff he was saying was right and that helped me.”

Handing over the reigns
With one half of play against Illinois in the books, sophomore guard Kalin Lucas — the same player who has carried the Spartans during Big Ten play — had zero points.

Luckily, it’s not how one starts; it’s how they finish. Lucas scored 10 points in the second half, including six in the final
six minutes, and took play-calling duty from the assistant coaches.

“One thing coach did do is he did let me run the team,” Lucas said. “He did sit down with me and say and he wanted me to grow up as a point guard and I think I did that.”

Who gets the credit?
The Spartans committed 14 turnovers in the first half on Saturday — more than their average of 12.5 per game. In the second half, they started taking better care of the ball, turning the ball over just four times compared to the Illini’s 11 as they posted the come-from-behind win.

So was it good defense or bad offense? Senior guard Travis Walton said it was a combination of both.

“I don’t want to take any credit away from their defense because they played excellent defense, they’re a great defensive team, but we had 18 turnovers, 14 in the first half,” Walton said. “Some of those were us, some of those were how they made you play … A lot had to do with them, but I don’t think we were as strong and aggressive with the ball as we should have been.”