“Taking it one game at a time, I think that’s the big thing," senior guard, and reigning Big Ten player of the year, Cassius Winston said.

"If you put your all into each and every game then those are going to be your best results. If we take our time, don’t look too far ahead. You know, first thing we got to focus on is our first game and then the game after that. If we take that approach, and we are playing at our best, there’s probably not a lot of teams that can compete with us."

On the court, it is hard to put a firm expectation on what this team wants from this season. The most that they can ask from each other and themselves is to strive to get better each time they come to play. 

“It’s hard to have expectations, other than the day to day, to the day to day I expect us to get better everyday. I expect guys to push themselves everyday,” junior forward Xavier Tillman said after the Spartans' first practice of the year.

Tillman, who was a key contributor in last year’s success, plans to hold himself to the same standard as all of his teammates as they look to take that next step.

“For myself, the same thing. Hold myself accountable, make sure I’m not slacking on any plays on offense or defense and just making sure we were working as hard as we can so we finally reach our end goal,” Tillman said.

The expectations  for themselves may vary day to day, but the goals of this team have remained the same, season to season. They want to win championships, not count wins, and to do that they play tough teams and tough teams early.

“We are aware of the expectations and what they are. I think we’ve been here once or twice before in some publications, but it’s not the norm. Our goals have always been to win championships, our goals have always been to get better each and every game,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “Our goals, I don’t think ever have been to win forty games or something like that. I only say that because that’s why we schedule like we schedule. What happens in October, November, December matters to me only from the standpoint of us learning.”

The desire for this Spartan team to get back to the Final four, and this time the National Championship, is evident. Winston believes that consistency will be the factor that takes them to the next level.

“I think we got a lot of guys who got to step up in their big role. Once we gel together, we got a lot of talented guys. We just have to figure out how to put that chemistry back together. Figure out guys' roles … Once we do that things are gonna be rolling,” Winston said.

Despite high expectations and outside pressure, the Spartans are excited to get this season underway and to get the opportunity to play at such a big stage.

“Not a lot of people get this opportunity," Winston said. "It’s a wonderful opportunity to be on this platform. There’s going to be a lot of people watching, so we are going to do everything we can to be prepared, ready to go and take advantage of the opportunity.”

“You got a little taste of it, that’s never enough. We want to take it another step further.”