"This is unchartered waters," Izzo said. "We’ve never had four freshmen, never had four that played or had to move so many people around."

In Wednesday's game against SVSU, figuring out the right groove was simultaneously fruitful and frightful for MSU. The Spartans shot more than 50 percent and converted 40 percent of 3-point attempts on the night, yet only mustered a 10-point margin of victory thanks to endemic errors across the court. Most notoriously, those lapses were manifested in 18 turnovers and a 64 percent rate from the free throw line. In a continuous 3:41 stretch, MSU doled out six giveaways.

"(It was a combination of things), sloppy play and missed free throws," Izzo said. "When you put the combination of things together — sloppy defense, bad turnovers and missed free throws — 10-12 point leads could go to 20 and 15-point leads, or it could go to 9."

While the profusely hyped MSU team has been relatively unspectacular in two outings thus far, the beginning of the season is a time for growth, Izzo said. Although cankered with carelessness and inconsistency, the roster that boasts four true freshmen expected growing pains and expects to work them out.

"Maybe it's the freshmen getting acclimated, maybe it's the upperclassmen getting acclimated," Izzo said. "Can't say I'm too happy, but I do feel we got something out of it." 

A monumental transition is nothing unusual for freshmen to have to cope with. The veteran members of the roster already experienced the metamorphosis themselves and were working to make sure the freshmen's evolution was as expedient as possible.

"It's a completely different level of the sport, it's a different pace," redshirt-sophomore Kenny Goins said. "There's going from the only superstar on the court to four or five, sometimes on one team. It's just different. You have to realize that everyone is the best player from their high school team and everyone came here because they could do something special. I did it, and they're going through it now. But we've got to speed things up for them because we don't have many bodies."

The three active freshmen have far from choked or encumbered MSU in the preseason, though. Instead, forward Miles Bridges led the team both games in scoring, pairing a blistering three-point percentage with a myriad of moves to the basket. Forward Nick Ward advertised his aggressiveness and strength in the two games, scoring 25 points total. Point guard Cassius Winston led the team both games in assists and showed a preternatural combination of leadership, unselfishness and ability.

Yet, Izzo insisted that all had adjustments to make. For him, Bridges' seven combined turnovers were all too many, while his rebounding and defensive intensity were lackluster. Winston also turned the ball over too much for Izzo, and the head coach promised that Ward would be working on his free throws to cure a 0-for-5 eyesore from Wednesday's game. 

"It's been more physical, more fast and I've just got to adjust to it," Bridges said. "And that starts in practice, because we go hard every practice."

Through two exhibition games, evaluating MSU and the class of 2016 has been complicated by the temporary absence of five-star incoming freshman Joshua Langford. Izzo pointed to Langford as the team's premier perimeter defender and said he expects to have the swingman back for the first game against Arizona. Yet, he did not guarantee specific playing time.

While MSU is still concocting its best formula, however, there are no more test-tube matches.

Starting Nov. 11, the Spartans' opponents won't play in the GLIAC, they'll play in the NCAA. Ranging from perennial contenders — of whom there are quite a few booked — to voracious underdogs seeking a statement victory, the upcoming adversaries will likely be quicker to capitalize on error.

"When we had this team down by 20, we got satisfied, and we can't do that," Bridges said. "Especially if we're beating Arizona or Kentucky or any of these teams by 10 or something, we definitely can't do that, because they can come back and take the lead from us like that. So we've just got to learn from this."

For all of the scrutiny and nitpicking, possibly the simplest, most prosaic takeaway from the two exhibition games is the most important — the obvious disclaimer that preseason is not reflective of the regular season. Whether that be in lineups, personnel or effort, a new MSU team will take the court when the regular season opens.

"I knew what I was going to do these past two exhibition games, for the most part we did it," Izzo said. "I had some predetermined lineups and when you do that, you're not going to be as efficient. And we weren't. I was kind of disappointed in the grit we had or the least amount of grit I have seen in the last few years. ... Some fun practices in the next weeks, but I promise everyone here that we will compete with consistency."