But when junior forward Draymond Green came down with a stomach virus and couldn’t practice since Tuesday’s game, Roe found himself starting in Saturday night’s 61-57 win against Illinois.

“We needed this win and I had to play through it,” Roe said after the game. “(My knee is) getting better, but it’s not where it needs to be right now. This injury I’ve got takes 10-14 days to heal, but it’s the type of year where you can’t rest for 10 to 14 days. I’m going to have to play through it.”

Roe played 22 minutes Saturday, scored eight points and led the Spartans with seven rebounds. He practiced Friday for the first time since the Spartans’ game against Penn State on Feb. 10, when he injured the knee making a layup in the final seconds.

“I got a text from Morris Peterson today that said, ‘Coach, tell them to play like Spartans,’” MSU head coach Tom Izzo said Saturday. “The pride of a Spartan —if Delvon Roe doesn’t embody that, nobody does.”

The injury has limited Roe’s lateral movement but not his running or jumping abilities.

Roe said the knee felt great before the game, but as the game wore on, the pain got worse.

“He just said to me at halftime, ‘I’m playing,’” Izzo said. “I said, ‘I’m agreeing.’ It was a real mutual exchange of words.”

App-arent turnaround
Freshman guard Keith Appling had a first half to forget Saturday, going scoreless and air-balling a wide-open 3-point shot. But when the second half began, Appling made it clear he’d have a different half.

He began driving to the basket more, making layups and getting to the free-throw line.

“I kind of struggled shooting in the first half, so I just wanted to come out and get an easy bucket going to (the) basket so I could ignite my offense a little bit,” Appling said.

Appling scored all nine of his points in the second half and added five rebounds and two blocks on the defensive end.

“The last time we played Illinois, we kind of lived and died by the 3-point shots,” he said. “So this time, we wanted to go (to) the basket a little bit and draw some fouls and create opportunities for our teammates.”

Slowly but surely
Senior guard Durrell Summers had come under fire from coaches and fans in recent games because of poor performances, but Saturday’s win seemed to be a step in the right direction for the Detroit native.

Summers scored eight points on just 1-for-7 shooting, but grabbed four rebounds and made five of six free-throw attempts.

The six free-throw attempts were the most attempted by Summers since Jan. 8 at Penn State and the five made tied a season-high. He also made five free throws in the second game of the season against South Carolina on Nov. 16, 2010.

“I was just being aggressive, that just came with getting confident in myself,” Summers said. “I was able to let the game take me wherever. I had some good shots, they just didn’t go in. Had they went in, I could have whatever, but you can’t get it all back in one day. I’m happy with how today went.”