While MSU winning the Big Ten regular season title is not likely, as MSU is currently sitting in sixth place, the final eight games will be crucial for MSU in terms of improving its seeding in the Big Ten Tournament as well as the NCAA Tournament. 

"You get to the back-nine, as Gus Ganakas called it, you've got eight games left now; the job is to be getting better at each thing each day," Izzo said. "I thought we took some strides, but it was consistency. We consistently didn't have any balance between inside and outside."

Izzo has talked extensively this season about trying to find the right balance between shooting the three and feeding the post, noting that when the inside game is working it opens up the opportunity for better looks from beyond the arc off of kick-out passes, which he thinks will be a key going down the stretch. 

"We went only inside those past couple of games and then the last few games we only went outside," Izzo said referencing the 33 made 3-pointers in the team's past two games. "It was really good when we made the first couple (threes) then all the sudden we miss six in a row or something and then we called some timeouts and then did a better job of getting the ball inside."

Senior guard Denzel Valentine said when it gets down to the end of the season it makes each game a little more important, no matter who the team is playing, and they have to bring it every night. 

"It's getting towards the end of the year and I see we only have eight games left and it's kind of depressing," Valentine said. " But it's kind of a little more important when it's eight games left."

Junior guard Eron Harris said he knows the level of play is going to increase over the next couple of weeks as all the teams fight for positioning for the Big Ten Tournament. 

Harris said he thinks the week off will help MSU rest up and mentally prepare for the grueling final stretch. 

“Time doesn’t stop," Harris said. "The end of the season is nearing and the culture here is winning so that’s what we’re going to put our mind to."

"Making sure we’re taking care of ourselves, eating the right things, getting the right amount of rest and just focusing in because it’s going to be more mental than it is physical," Harris said.

The other key during the final stretch for MSU will be finding out when Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn Jr. will be able to return from his current five game absence due to plantar fasciitis. 

Izzo said Sunday was the first day the doctors allowed Nairn walk without a boot on his right foot. Izzo said Nairn was able to do some work on the stationary bike, but Izzo wouldn't know his status going forward until later in the week.

"He did have the boot off today," Izzo said. "Today's the first day they're going to let him walk on it, he rode the bike a little bit, I didn't even know how that went, if it was sore or not sore. ...The scary part for me is, if it's not it could be another three to four weeks, it's one of those, it's either going to be one way or the other."