“It’s going to be one of those situations where you say, ‘Hey, who is that kid out there? I’ve never heard of that kid before,’” Roe said Wednesday at the team’s annual Media Day.

“That’s something I like as a competitor. You always want to have outside forces to keep you going and keep you motivated, and the motivation for me is that I was one of those players who was talked about as a McDonald’s All-American. I want people to know who I am nationally and try to help the team.”

No one has seen the real Delvon Roe on the basketball court. Sure, he was a dominant and athletic player in high school. But during his freshman season, he had to relearn how to play the game and rely solely on instinct and basketball IQ.

During the season, Roe averaged 5.6 points and 5.2 rebounds a game, starting 31 of the 38 games he played. There were glimpses of his potential, such as his first career double-double against Michigan, but whenever Roe came close to feeling improved, something else — like a sprained ankle against Oakland in December — delayed development.

On Wednesday, Roe admitted he never was more than 70 percent healthy last season, but by learning how to properly position himself to score and rebound, he said he can harness both his natural talent and newfound basketball knowledge to make his mark this season.

“I think if you put those two together — me being able to jump and now having basketball instincts (and) knowing where to put my body and not just going up and getting rebound, I think having athletic ability and basketball knowledge will be huge,” Roe said.

Injury report

After spending what he described as “the hardest summer of (his) life” recovering from two surgeries to repair broken bones in his right foot, sophomore guard Korie Lucious was cleared early Wednesday afternoon to participate in practice for the first time since being injured in the 2009 NCAA National Championship.

“It didn’t heal at first, so it’s healing right now and they went in and put a bigger screw in and right now we’re looking real optimistic,” Lucious said. “It’s real positive. We went and got X-rays (Wednesday) and I’m almost ready to go.”

MSU head coach Tom Izzo said it was “a stretch” that Lucious would participate in Friday’s Midnight Madness.

As for junior guard Chris Allen — the other MSU guard who broke his right foot versus North Carolina — he has been back and ready to go all summer. Allen, who was suffering late in the season with knee tendonitis, said his injury might have almost been a blessing in disguise.

“When I hurt my foot, really, in a weird way, it helped me,” Allen said. “It helped me rest and get over all the tendonitis I had. Now, my knees don’t hurt anymore and my legs are way stronger than they were.”

Offseason motivation

Junior guard Kalin Lucas, who unanimously was voted a captain along with senior forward Raymar Morgan, said this summer’s player-led offseason workouts were the most challenging during his time at MSU.

“We worked our butts off all summer,” Lucas said.

“It wasn’t just like two or three guys, it was the whole team. We were on the track running (and) we worked our butts (off) in the weight room, too. I think we’re ready.”