"What I remember most about that game was we were abysmal from three," freshman guard Jase Richardson said after practice Tuesday.

No doubt. But perimeter shooting prowess wasn’t the only thing missing. 

MSU was still finding its identity — a team of moving parts, untapped roles and players who hadn’t yet reached their potential. Yet, they’ll return to that same floor this weekend with something Kansas doesn’t have, along with 336 other Division I teams: a season still alive.

The Spartans have spent the last five months shaping and refining — often imperfectly — into a team that now stands among the last remaining in the country. As they prepare to return to Atlanta to face No. 6 seed Ole Miss in the Sweet 16, their best basketball might still be ahead.

That’s the belief from the top down. 

"That’s the great part about my team. I don’t think we’ve reached that ceiling yet," head coach Tom Izzo said during a press conference Tuesday. 

MSU wasn’t a polished product early — not with players like a freshman point guard returning from leg surgery, another entering with mixed expectations and a hyper-athletic forward still learning how to operate within the half court. 

The pieces were there, but the progress was yet to come.

"I didn’t know what to expect with Jeremy (Fears Jr.) coming back after a serious injury. We had Jase (Richardson) coming in highly ranked," Izzo said. "But who knows? We had some guys that had to get better. Coen Carr was one of them."

Richardson’s flashes came in November. His offensive output and confidence? That didn’t consistently show up until February. Fears took the reigns of Izzo’s team with limited experience, none as a starter, and became one of MSU’s most trusted floor generals and defenders. And sophomore Carr — a highlight factory since his first exhibition game last season — has focused his athleticism, embraced dirty work and molded into Izzo’s most versatile true wing on both ends of the floor, as seen in his 18-point, nine-rebound performance against Bryant in the NCAA Tournament’s first round. 

The same players who just represented MSU’s room for growth are now the ones fueling its Big Ten Championship and its pursuit of a Final Four run.

"I’m not sure I thought this was totally possible when the year started, and definitely didn’t think we’d win the Big Ten by three games," Izzo said. "So some things have happened that I didn’t think would happen."

The Spartans’ path moving forward — beginning with a Sweet 16 matchup against an Ole Miss team "tough as nails," Izzo said — won’t get easier. But what they’ve shown, especially down the stretch, is that player development can coexist in the moment with winning. 

MSU has won with depth, defense — and, perhaps most importantly, without peaking.

The Spartans’ outside shooting fluctuates, their rotations adjust based on matchups, and they’ve won two NCAA Tournament games without their full arsenal firing at once.

Eight halves of basketball stand between MSU and a place it hasn’t reached in 25 years. For a team still discovering its best self, that could be the sweet spot.