Izzo was complimentary of junior center Nick Ward’s defense, though he said he felt his wing players did not do a good enough job of preventing FGCU from getting to the rim. 

“We’ve gotta do a little bit of a better job at the point of attack. Nick has actually done a phenomenal job defending ball screens. Compared to last year, he is just much, much better,” Izzo said. 

“We’re getting beat on some dribble drives. (Opponents) are blowing by guys. I think it’s a lack of staying focused when you get a big lead. It wasn’t as bad against Kansas as it was last night, so that means that we’re playing the score instead of the game, and we’re gonna start working on playing the game instead of the score.”

Senior guard and team captain Matt McQuaid echoed his head coach’s credo that the team has to do a better job of closing out opponents.

“I think that we just lost focus as a team,” McQuaid said. “We gotta stay mentally into a full forty minutes instead of just letting teams keep coming back. We have to build off our leads and continue to get better.”

Senior forward Kenny Goins said he thought the team’s focus in second halves of games will improve as the season goes along.

“Great teams are able to keep that dog mentality throughout the entire game, so we’ve got a bit of a ways to come. But we’re starting to piece together more and more minutes here,” Goins said.

Monday's practice was long, and the players were visibly tired by the end of it. Izzo said the team improved as practice went along, but did not regret having such a grueling practice the day after a night game.

“Everybody wants to play in the NBA, but to play in the NBA, you gotta play (back-to-back nights). All these guys think because you played a game, that you got practice the next day, it’s tough,” Izzo said. “They gotta learn how to do that. I thought the second half of practice was better than the first half. I thought we made some progress.” 

The team may have some residual frustration from last Tuesday’s loss to then-No. 1 Kansas, because in general, there was tension in the air after practice Monday, even after blowing a team out the night before. McQuaid spoke about specific defensive mistakes made against Florida Gulf Coast.

“We play a statistic-based defense, so we’re playing gaps and everything,” he said. “Defending backdoors and cuts, we didn’t do a good job of that the other night. So, that’s one thing we’ve gotta focus on.”

The Spartans face Louisiana-Monroe Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Warhawks are 2-1, losing 65-55 Monday night against Texas, though the game was tied in the second half. They return two of the three top scorers from a team that finished 16-16 last season.