Izzo said the results of the two warm-up games might not look pretty, but he still saw what he needed to see.

“I still got a lot out of the exhibition games, but I didn’t (get) what I would have liked to have gotten as far as seeing the carry over from a practice to a game,” Izzo said. “When you miss (13) free throws, some of those front ends of a one and one. At least we got to the line, but we didn’t get a very good job when we got there.”

Many times, Izzo platooned players and had a very small or very big lineup on the court, and he said that was a factor to why they gave up so many turnovers and didn’t rebound as well as he would have liked.

“You look at the lineups we had in there, and not that it should matter, we still should be able to (rebound),” Izzo said. “We just had some bizarre lineups in there. I thought Harris’ injury, when he was cramping up, hurt us a lot because he was really playing well early.”

Izzo said the good news for the Spartans is it’s just the beginning of the season and they have a lot of time to improve and build on his young, talented team.

“Where we are is we’re three weeks in,” he said. “We’re probably early to start the season. Especially the way we’re moving guys around, we’re not in great shape right now, but the season’s got five months to go.”

Junior guard Keith Appling said the team is slumping a little bit with some of the smaller problems the team encountered, and that it takes time and effort to get out of it.

“It’s hard,” Appling said. “Once you’re in it, you’ve just got to work you’re way out of it. I feel like we did a poor job of that tonight. At the end of the day that comes with leadership and guys helping pick one another up.”

Sophomore guard Brandon Dawson said if this team wants to compete with the top teams in the nation, all the small things need to improve a great deal.

“We shoot free throws every day in practice and after practice,” Dawson said. “From practice to the game, it’s different. The game is faster, the momentum is different. Our goal was eight (turnovers). If we play like that against UConn and Kansas, we’re going to get ripped.”

He said although the team might not have performed as well as they would have liked in the two exhibition games, they need to focus on getting better in the middle going forward.

“We have a lot of work to do as a team,” he said. “Our bigs are not stepping up on their screens. From coming off these two games and getting prepared for UConn and Kansas games, I’ll say we have a lot to work on.”

Senior center Derrick Nix said his four turnovers were unacceptable and when he settled in the second half, he got better.

“I just stopped trying to rush, because as a big, four turnovers is like a guard,” Nix said. “I’m not a ball handler, so I shouldn’t have had all those turnovers like that.”

Still, when the Spartans take on Connecticut in Germany next Friday, he said the team will definitely be well prepared.

“By the time Friday comes, we’ll be ready,” Nix said. “It’s just the first two games. We did win, it’s not like we lost, we just didn’t execute as well as the coaches wanted us too.”