"Halfway through the year we (adopted the tournament mindset) because we lost those three in a row and we wanted to win a Big Ten Championship," Valentine said. "So we realized we needed to get wins and we couldn't afford any more losses."

And the tournament mentality has paid off as MSU has battled all the way up to the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, earning a double-bye into the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals on Friday. A feat that one month ago seemed like a huge mountain to climb. 

Behind this incredible run to end the regular season, MSU has posted some of the best statistics in the country, including leading the country in assists, 3-point shooting and field goal percentage defense among other things. 

MSU is assisting on 72 percent of its made baskets, averaging 20.8 assists per game, and some games, like Saturday's win over Ohio State, MSU is getting more assists than its opponent is getting made field goals. MSU had 29 assists Saturday to just 27 made field goals for Ohio State. 

"When you have that kind of assists, when you're getting 72 percent of your baskets, seven-and-a-half out of every 10 baskets are on passes, you can find some teams that are barely getting 50 percent," Izzo said. "I think that does speak of this team. It speaks to the unselfishness of the team and the ability to make shots - you can look at it both ways."

The MSU players all know how important the extra rest will be as they try to make a run and win not only the Big Ten Tournament next weekend, but also being able to rest a little more to be ready to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. 

Valentine along with fellow seniors Bryn Forbes and Matt Costello said they know MSU needs to shore up its defense heading into the postseason as they feel it has slipped a little in the last couple games of the season. 

"I think we first need to get healthy," Valentine said. "I know guys have been working hard, (we played) three games in six days, so we need to get rest. After that we just need to grind it out, we've got nine games left - hopefully. So we just have to grind it out and get our defense clicking again, the last two games I don't think we played the best defense, but other than that just stick to what we've been doing and don't change anything."

Valentine said setting the MSU record for most regular season wins at 26 is a great accomplishment, but that the team has much bigger plans than regular season records. 

"That's a huge record," Valentine said. "We'll always be able to look in the record book and see our team and see what we accomplished this year. We would have liked to get the Big Ten Championship outright, but we have a lot more basketball left to play and can still win two more championships. We're not done. We want to play nine more games and win two more championships." 

Izzo said after the game during the senior day ceremony that there have been three previous teams that he felt heading into the postseason had a real shot to win it all - 2000, 2001 and 2014 - and that this year he has that same feeling. 

However, Costello is cautious as he said he feels as good heading into the postseason as he did in 2014, but that doesn't matter if the team loses focus or looks ahead. 

"My sophomore year was pretty much the same," Costello said. "But it doesn't matter how you feel, it matters what happens when you play, so we know what we have to do."

The players will have Sunday off Izzo said, but Monday he said it's back in the gym to get the team back performing at a higher level on offense and defense to make the final push into the postseason. 

"As I told my guys, they can all enjoy it tonight and all enjoy it tomorrow because tomorrow’s off, but Monday, fellas, is gonna be dog eat dog and we gotta get back to what we gotta get at defensively," Izzo said. "What we got better at moving the ball. The ball got stagnant some. We are going to get back to a couple things that we’re not going to talk about today. I, too, am going to enjoy today and that’s what it’s gonna be.”