Road remains a challenge for young Spartans, even vs. depleted Indiana

EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo continues to see Michigan State’s developing nucleus learning to deal without the comforts of home.

That’s typical for many young teams. However, it’s something the Spartans need to fix if they want to contend in the Big Ten.

“Going to new places — we laughed,” Izzo said Tuesday. “We go to Columbus, no big deal, you go on the road. Well there’s a hockey game the night before. No big deal. We can’t shoot the night before, we’ll shoot the day of. Well, the game that was 4:30 (p.m.) months ago is now a 1 o’clock or 1:30. So now you don’t get to shoot there the day of the game.

“You know what? Denzel Valentine, who cares? Four freshmen, Matt McQuaid, guys that haven’t? A lot of people care. Those are the things that if you don’t know, the outside noise, if you don’t understand, if you’ve never been in the arena, you have no clue.”

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The venue gets even tougher today — the cauldron of noise that is Assembly Hall — when MSU travels to face injury-ravaged Indiana (4 p.m., ESPN). And the pressure becomes more significant for the Spartans (12-7, 4-2 Big Ten) to start winning games to avoid sitting on the bubble or at home come NCAA Tournament selection time.

“I really don’t know what to expect because I haven’t played there yet,” freshman guard Joshua Langford said. “I really think against Ohio State, we beat ourselves, really. … And so the biggest thing, when we go on the road, is just to make sure that we stay locked in and focused for 40 minutes. I feel if we can stay focused for 40 minutes, we’re a great team.”

MSU is 9-1 at Breslin this season, outscoring opponents 86.1-70.7 a game. The Spartans are 3-6 away from home, including a 1-2 mark in true road games and 2-4 on neutral courts. They are coming off a 72-67 defeat at Ohio State on Sunday.

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In those three true road games — at OSU, Minnesota and Duke — Izzo’s team has been outscored by 13. They also lost by 9 to Penn State in Philadelphia, which was technically a neutral court with a decided Nittany Lions crowd.

Izzo said his team hasn’t been as sharp in road games.

“You know every road game’s gonna be a tough game,” freshman Cassius Winston said. “No matter who you’re playing, you know it’s gonna be packed, there’s gonna be a lot of people there wanting us to lose. It’s gonna be them against us. That’s always gonna be tough. … We still gotta become better. We’re a whole different team on the road, and we gotta fix that.”

Indiana (13-6, 3-3) quickly is becoming a different team as well. Starting forward OG Anunoby suffered a right knee injury in a 78-75 escape Wednesday at Penn State, and coach Tom Crean said the 6-foot-8 sophomore will have surgery and miss the rest of the season. Anunoby averaged 11.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in 25.1 minutes.

The Hoosiers also played that night without 6-8 sophomore forward Juwan Morgan (foot). Still, Izzo’s former MSU assistant Crean has plenty of talent to work with.

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Junior guard James Blackmon leads them with 17.5 points and adds 5.1 rebounds. Sophomore Thomas Bryant, a 6-10 center, is posting 11.9 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds and will be a focus in the paint for Izzo’s height-challenged defense that struggled at Ohio State.

Indiana is 11-2 at home this season.

“We are playing a very tough basketball team with a Hall of Fame coach,” Crean said Wednesday after his team’s first road win. “We need our crowd’s energy at a fever pitch, because I don’t know how many guys we are going to have. … We have the best crowd in the country, and we really need them to bring it all on Saturday afternoon.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.