“My little son asked what I wanted for Christams,” Izzo said. “I said, ‘practice.’ That’s the greatest present I could get.”

During he last three weeks, Izzo and the Spartans have been too busy traveling from Maui to Durham, N.C., to New York City to Auburn Hills, Mich., and playing some of the best teams in the country to have any substantial amount of practice time. MSU played eight games in 20 days, capped by its 77-76 win against Oakland on Saturday at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Now, the Spartans are in the midst of exam week, and after practicing “pretty hard” Sunday, MSU has Monday and Tuesday off. But Izzo said the Spartans will get back to work on Wednesday and take advantage of finally having some time to practice together.

With a number of Izzo’s players spending the majority of their summers dealing with injuries, he said having a stretch of only three games in 19 days will be huge for his team.

“This time of year always has been worth a million bucks to me,” Izzo said. “It’s probably more so this year because of a lack of a summer. … I think it will pay great dividends later.”

Accomplishments

Most coaches wouldn’t look at a one-point win against Oakland as a very positive result.

But after the Spartans have spent the early portion of the season struggling in a variety of different areas, Izzo said he was happy with what he saw for the most part.

“I thought we took a small step on Saturday,” Izzo said. “I went into it thinking, ‘What do we want to accomplish?’ It doesn’t matter who we’re playing.”

One of the biggest accomplishments for MSU was turning the ball over only eight times — almost 10 less than the Spartans’ average coming into the game against the Golden Grizzlies. Along with that, MSU also outrebounded a good rebounding Oakland team, 39-37.

Now 12 games into the season, MSU’s three losses are against teams currently ranked in the top five in the country, and Izzo said his team is relatively close to what he expected before the season.

“In my mind, we’re probably one game off where I hoped to be,” Izzo said. “I mean, really three games, but one game where I thoguth we might be.”

Troubled bigs

Both junior forward Delvon Roe and sophomore center Derrick Nix aren’t having the seasons they likely hoped to have at the beginning of the year.

Roe, who is coming off another microfracture surgery to his knee, said before the season that he would be the explosive player everyone expected him to be this year.

Averaging 6.7 points and 5.1 rebounds, Roe has been solid, but Izzo said both he and Roe know the former high school All-American can do more.

“I think he was so beat up for two years with those injuries, it kind of beat him up mentally,” Izzo said. “I think now he’s got to get his dreams and goals back a little bit.”

Instead of just trying to survive, Izzo said Roe needs to “start dreaming big” again, and he said he expects that to happen.

“There’s not a better kid in America,” Izzo said. “And I expect some improvement.”

Unlike Roe, who missed most of the summer, Nix had a productive summer in which he lost a lot of weight and got in better shape.

However, early in the season, Nix’s improvements were not evident. His struggles reached their climax when he did not travel with the team to the Maui Invitational at the end of November.

Throughout the last few weeks, Nix has been working to get back in Izzo’s good graces.

“He does have something to prove to me and the staff, but I think he has something to prove to his teammates, too, although players are a little more resilient than coaches.”

After such a good summer, Izzo said Nix hasn’t been in good shape and has gained some of his weight back. But with time to work on getting back into shape during Christmas break, Izzo said Nix should be able to put the last month behind him.

“It happened, we faced it and we dealt with it,” Izzo said. “It was nothing serious as far as some things are concerned, but it was serious as far as his basketball was concerned. I think he’s ready to take another step forward.”