MSU is 1-1 against top-10 teams this season, losing 68-67 to then-No. 5 Notre Dame on Nov. 19, but beating then-No. 4 North Carolina 72-66 last Thursday.

“Our schedule’s crazy,” head coach Suzy Merchant said following practice Tuesday. “I don’t know why I did this. It’s almost too much. Every time you turn around, it’s like one top-10 team is coming in here. But at the end of the day, you kind of want to be exposed to what you don’t do well and obviously be able to fix that.”

The Spartans are looking to rebound — literally — from Sunday’s listless 68-63 loss to Indiana. MSU grabbed only eight defensive rebounds in the second half and was outscored 39-24.

“We’ve talked about what happened and it’s a group that’s old enough to understand it,” Merchant said. “They just didn’t perform and kind of played on their heels a little bit and it showed. It’s one lesson you don’t want to learn too many times.”

Sophomore forward Lykendra Johnson said coming into the game against Indiana, the team was emotionally drained from the 72-66 win last Thursday against North Carolina at Breslin Center.

“It showed,” she said. “We were just trying to get going … but we couldn’t get going. I think the most important thing is to, in practice, keep our intensity up and we have to get some more shots up and focus.”

Junior Cetera Washington said the coaching staff has emphasized rebounding this week in practice, especially from the guards. It’s going to be important to keep the 7-0 Musketeers off the glass, because they have four players averaging double-digit scoring and a fifth averaging 9.4 points.

A big team — nine players are 6 feet or taller — Xavier is special, Merchant said, because of how the team combines strength with height.

“Xavier is one of the best teams we’ve played to this point,” Merchant said. “They’re a blend of the skill of Notre Dame and the athleticism and size of North Carolina.”

But the Musketeers have many dangerous shooters, and that’s going to keep MSU’s defense on its heels.

Xavier is 14th in the nation in field-goal percentage, at 47.2 percent per game, and 13th in 3-point percentage at 41 percent per game.

Through much of the season, the Spartans have excelled at holding teams to a low shooting percentage — they’re 23rd in the country at 33.0 percent — but have allowed teams to get to the foul line. Only 33 teams (out of 332) average more fouls per game than the Spartans.

“Defensively, we’ve been working on moving our feet without our hands,” Washington said. “We’ve had a few practices where we’ve put towels around our necks and just moved our feet. It felt awkward but it was really just focusing on our footwork, so it really helped.”