Actually, hold that thought.

“It’s been interesting listening to people talk,” Izzo said with a touch of disdain. “People think I golf all summer. They think I take most of the year off and start coaching in February and oh, shazam, I’m good in February and March. Lemme tell you something, I coached harder in December and January.”

With respect to the calendar, it is February. Michigan State has lost two games in a row, four of their last five. They are 2.5 games back of first place in the Big Ten after senior guard Trent Frazier drilled a three with 23.2 seconds left to kill another comeback bid in a game that Illinois Head Coach Brad Underwood compared to a fight in a Pizza-Hut parking lot.

March will be here in nine days. From the outside looking in, the supposed magic switch that happens around this time of year, flipping good Spartan teams into world beaters, March into Izzo, can’t get here soon enough. The program that might relish a game resembling a brawl outside a chain pizzeria hasn’t arrived quite yet.

And yet, that’s the process. It always has been. In the precarious spot of being one win away from being a lock for the NCAA Tournament and one loss away from a true unraveling as they fight to get back to that familiar point, Michigan State’s margin for error remains razor thin.

But watching his team walk it against Illinois, Izzo managed to find something he liked in a place he typically doesn’t.

“This is one of the rare times in my career that I felt like we made some progress with a loss,” Izzo said. “I don’t ever prescribe to ‘that loss was good for you’. It’s only good for you if you don’t have leaders and you don’t have competitors that are trying to win every game.

“We took a step in the right direction. We made some big plays. We really, really got after it defensively.”

Taking that step started with a fight to get their deficit under 10. Michigan State hovered around that point in a second half that saw anybody and everybody-redshirt senior Joey Hauser, senior center Marcus Bingham Jr., junior guard Tyson Walker, sophomore guard A.J. Hoggard and junior center Julius Marble II in particular-chip in a barrage of threes, midrange jumpers and hook shots to whittle the deficit down.

The night-and-day difference, or headway made, between the halves was clear to Hoggard.

“We had to play with more energy,” Hoggard said. “We believe energy brings results.”

The results were clear with 52 second half points, 30 more than their opening period, an effort that put them in a position where Walker was able to put Michigan State right back on the doorstep. After struggling throughout the season to find the balance between passing and scoring while working within the Spartans' up-tempo scheme, the junior point guard exploded for 26 points (10-12 from the field) and was every bit the prolific scorer that generated considerable buzz when he transferred from Northeastern.

Izzo said he was proud of Walker but sighed after talking about his performance. “Little bit too much too late,” he said. But even if it didn’t push them over the top, it was another barrier broken, one that needed to be overcome as Michigan State vies to get the most out of their next five games.

Few have had to offer tougher answers this season than Marble, another player that has continued to improve amid the losing. With strong performances in dismal losses to Northwestern and Penn State, he’s had to field responses regarding his team’s shortcomings more than his own triumphs.

The trend continued on Saturday as Marble picked up eight points and a measure of consistency by impacting back-to-back games. The recognition of the headway made-whether it’s comfortable to admit or not-didn’t either.

“A lot of guys won’t admit it right now because we lost,” Marble said. “But I feel like we did build on it a little bit because we got to get some type of rhythm going on as the end of the season’s approaching. We’re going to be in tournament time where it’s one and done. This is a big loss for us as far as learning and progressing that way.”

A big loss. It’s not exactly a familiar term in the lexicon of college basketball, much less Michigan State. Nor is the perspective needed to recognize it as such.

At the end of it all, it’s another mark of progress, no matter how bitter it feels.