Izzo said these season-long struggles have been attributed to travel, lack of practice and injuries.

“It is harder to get consistency out of a young team. It is harder to get consistency out of an inexperienced team that is older, but inexperienced,” Izzo said. “It is really hard to get consistency when right now some of our seniors are trying to find themselves. So, our upperclassmen leadership isn't maybe where it needs to be. We are going to just keep grinding on that and making progress.”

Now that MSU embarks on game two of a five-game homestand, the Spartans will have added pressure to be more consistent and produce consistent results. This lack of consistency, however, isn’t the trigger for confidence issues for the Spartans, Izzo said.

“Confidence is an issue with every person on the planet,” Izzo said. “ If you do well, you're more confident and if you're not doing as well then you're not going to feel as comfortable and confident."

Confidence questions for sophomore shooting guard Matt McQuaid surfaced as well after his two points against Oral Roberts, with zero field goals made.

“The six months he (McQuaid) missed this summer, you’re not going to have the same confidence,” Izzo said. “Everybody knows that a player’s best progress is made from freshman to sophomore and then sophomore to junior year and he had zero. He’s not as confident, he’s playing a little robotic, he's coming off of screens not being able to shoot and that's what he is— he is a shooter.”

Izzo said players such as former guard Denzel Valentine and former guard Bryn Forbes were able to make large jumps in shooting confidence because of their availability in the offseason to commit to the gym.

The Spartans' next opponent features the fifth leading scorer in the nation, junior guard Cameron Morse with 23.7 points per game. He headlines an explosive Youngstown State (5-4 overall) offense, which has won four of their last five games and averages 82 points per game scoring on the season. In four of their nine games, one of which an exhibition match, the Penguins scored 90 or more points. The Penguins' second leading scorer is junior guard Francisco Santiago. Santiago had a double-double, scoring 20 points accompanied by 10 assists in a win against their last opponent, Oberlin College.

Youngstown State’s man in the middle is 7-foot-1 senior center Jorden Kaufman. Kaufman cleans the glass, on average, seven times per game. Senior forward Matt Donlan provides another scoring outlet, netting 16 and 21 points in the team's previous two games.

MSU will continue to be without freshman forward Miles Bridges. Izzo said Bridges is still in a walking boot after hurting his ankle against No. 5 Duke. Sophomore forward Kyle Ahrens is predicted to make his second start in Bridges’ absence.

MSU and Youngstown State will tip-off at 7 p.m. at the Breslin Center. The game will be televised on ESPNU.