“I’m pretty much doing everything, but at the same time, I’ve got to make sure I stay a little cautious,” he said.

Head coach Tom Izzo said that Lucas is shooting better now than he was last season, and suffering the injury provided him with an opportunity to focus on perfecting little details.

“I think Kalin’s much improved,” Izzo said. “I think the injury has helped Kalin slow himself down and see better, do things better, so in some ways, I see Kalin becoming a better passer.”

Despite saying that Lucas feels great and back to normal, Izzo said the coaches and trainers are working to get him properly conditioned for practices and the team’s first exhibition game against Saginaw Valley State on Nov. 2.

“His quickness is coming back,” Izzo said. “I don’t think his conditioning is quite where it was, but he doesn’t run out of gas, but we’re not having grueling practices yet either.”

In addition to getting Lucas back to full strength, junior guard Korie Lucious is recovering from a surgery he had on Sept. 28 to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. About three weeks later, Lucious said the doctors gave him the green light to practice, but he knows not to overdo it.

“Right now, it isn’t giving me any problems,” Lucious said. “I feel like I can go 100 percent, but I’m still going to take it day by day … and hopefully by the time the season comes, I should be 100 percent.”

Junior forward Draymond Green also is in the process of recovering from a minor sprained ankle that he suffered during the annual Midnight Madness event Friday night at Breslin Center.

Green said the trainers guessed he’d only be out for a few days, and although it’s not serious, he is still going easy at practice so there’s no risk of furthering the injury. Wednesday’s practice was his first since Midnight Madness.

“I got sore toward the end of practice (on Wednesday),” Green said. “I was pretty good for pretty much the whole practice, and then toward the end, it started to get sore and stiffen up, but it’s doing pretty good for the amount of days that it’s been.”

Izzo pulled Green from the end of his first practice but said he expects Green to be fully ready to practice by Sunday.

With various injuries affecting the Spartans, Izzo said Purdue forward Robbie Hummel’s recent torn anterior cruciate ligament during his first practice of the season is a loss for the Big Ten’s talent.

“It was strange because I felt sick for the kid,” Izzo said. “I felt bad for (head coach) Matt (Painter); I felt bad for Purdue … I felt bad for the Big Ten because he’s one of our key players.”

In an effort to reach out to Hummel and offer comfort, Green said he called Hummel Saturday night and wished him the best. Lucas said he plans on making another phone call.

“If something was to happen like that to one of our guys, we would want someone to do that for you,” Green said. “So being a leader from this team, I wanted to show my respect for him as a player and also respect for their program.”

Focusing on bringing their team back together in preparation for their opening game, the Spartans said everybody is challenging themselves at practice to make up for the recovering injuries.

“Everybody’s just doing their part to pick up the slack of the hurt guys,” Lucious said. “When everybody gets back healthy, I think we’re going to be a dominant force.”

Izzo said he’s confident that when all the pieces of his team fall back into place, MSU will be a force with which to be reckoned.

“We’ve got a bunch of speed, and I think we’ve got some muscle, and I think we’ve got some size,” he said. “It’s just going to be a matter of how long it will take to put it all together and how long it will take those guys to come back off the injuries they’ve had.”