But with just three days left before the Spartans head to the Ramstein Air Base to take on Connecticut on Friday in the first regular-season college basketball game ever played in Europe (5:30 p.m., ESPN), the thought of playing in front of members of the military has the MSU head coach excited.

“It seems like it’s a long way to go to play a game, but my experience with the military last year was so rewarding for not only myself, but the players, for the university and hopefully for the country,” Izzo said.

“These kind of things just kind of bring you closer to reality and I’m always in for a dose of reality.”

Last year, the Spartans traveled to San Diego to play North Carolina in the Carrier Classic, the first college basketball game to be played on an active aircraft carrier.

It was something sophomore guard Branden Dawson first heard about during high school and, similarly to the team’s upcoming trip to Germany, the opportunity was met with disbelief.

“Coach Iz said during my recruitment, he told me that we were going to go to San Diego to play on an aircraft carrier ,and I didn’t believe him at first,” Dawson said.

“Come this summer, (the team) had another meeting and Coach Iz asked us (if) we wanted to go to Germany and play UConn, and who wouldn’t say yes to that? That’s the main reason I came here, because Coach Iz is a great coach and what he said, everything is true.”

As of Monday morning, the future basketball court, which regularly serves as an airplane hangar, had an airplane resting on it, which Izzo joked could make it tough to dribble around, “especially for (senior center Derrick) Nix.”

Nix said it’s common for teams to travel to big events and lose sight of the main objective: winning.

With leadership being the one area he feels the team isn’t quite at the level it was at this point last season, the team captain is taking it upon himself to make sure his teammates have the right mindset when they step inside the airplane hangar.

“We’re going down there to support the military, but we’ve got a basketball game to win.”