Despite the slug of opponents and airfare, head coach Tom Izzo said in his weekly press conference the overall experience has been positive, despite their losses.

“When you think about it so far, I think coming out of the Bahamas we played a lot of good basketball,” Izzo said. “Unfortunately the bad basketball caught us, but we did a lot of good things there. I thought we played some good minutes against St. John’s and most of the first half against Baylor and really a lot of the game against a very good Wichita State. I think we made a lot of progress, but we still have some deficiencies that you can see.”

While MSU basketball is succeeding in stretches, they have also been exposed in different facets of the game, Izzo said.

A major gimp in the MSU lineup was the ability to handle a full court press against Wichita State. When the Shockers dialed up the pressure, MSU played hot potato and turned the ball over five straight possessions. In the Spartans' first road game of the year, they will play in front of the "Cameron Crazies," in Durham, N.C.

“We got pressed a little bit and we look like a fish out of water and we will do a better job on that, that won’t happen again,” Izzo said. “Our guys are excited to go to Duke. Yesterday we had the longest and best practice that I have had in three years. We put a lot of time in because it was a day we could do that. You could see in the practice that they were excited and focused in and we got some things done.”

Practice has become a foreign term to the Spartans, as the team’s practice schedule has been chopped down with their travel and game arrangements. Although popularized by an Allen Iverson rant, practice limitations has made preparation for high caliber teams all the more difficult, Izzo said. Instead of being able to study their opponent, the Spartans this year have experienced quick turnarounds, such as the 12-hour turnaround to play then-No. 20 Baylor.

“The schedule I knew would be brutal travel-wise, I just did not look at it from a standpoint of how much practice time we wouldn’t get, film time we wouldn’t get,” Izzo said.

The Blue Devils feature an array of talent from back court to front court and freshmen to seniors. Junior guard Grayson Allen headlines the Blue Devils, however, might be limited or not play because of an aggravated toe injury. This year, Allen has struggled, averaging 16 points per game on 38 percent shooting. In comparison, Allen averaged more than 20 points per game a season ago and was a finalist for the John R. Wooden award, given to the most valuable college basketball player. Allen sustained an ankle injury against No. 4 Kansas, when he scored 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting, 1-of-7 from 3-point territory.

With or without Allen, the Blue Devils contain three other players with double-digit scoring: forward Amile Jefferson, senior guard Matt Jones and sophomore guard Luke Kennard. Kennard currently leads the team in points with 17.1 per game, assists with 3.9 per game and rebounds with 6.7 per game.

Both teams have major injuries to their lineups, MSU with the loss of forwards Ben Carter and Gavin Schilling before the season. Duke still has yet to have No. 1 draft recruit in ESPN’s top 100, Harry Giles. Giles is recovering from a torn ACL injury, his third knee he has sustained before stepping on a collegiate court wearing the name Duke across his chest. He is still believed to be a potential No. 1 overall selection in next year’s NBA draft.

Win or lose, Izzo said the experience from battling Duke will provide the team with more coaching opportunities. After this game, the Spartans will have a five-game homestand against zero ranked opponents.

“Like I said it’s been a bizarre year,” Izzo said. “What I learned about the scheduling that everybody or some people took wrong. I would not change who I scheduled. The amount of time in between and the amount of distance I would change because I think it created three issues. No practice time, no film time and very little rest time. For a young team, that’s not healthy. But as far as who we’re playing, this will now be the sixth NCAA opponent in my humble opinion that we’ll have played in the first eight games.”

The game will be at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN.