Michigan State faces a different challenge, but it's not an opponent

EAST LANSING — Nick Ward missed practice Wednesday for Michigan State basketball.

Coach Tom Izzo said his junior forward “tweaked his ankle a hair” during practice a day earlier, but added Ward would have gone through workouts but also has an exam to prepare for.

Finals week is one of the challenges when the No. 9 Spartans face Wisconsin-Green Bay on Sunday at Breslin Center (5 p.m., BTN); it's a game Izzo expects Ward to play.

MSU won’t practice Thursday, one of the busiest exam days this week.

“And then Friday, we get to go to work,” Izzo said. “This is a difficult time with exams for everybody.”

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Izzo wasn’t happy after Wednesday’s practice but admitted his players appear fatigued from the early part of finals week, which comes after playing six games against major conference opponents — including two Big Ten wins — in 17 days with four road trips: Las Vegas; Piscataway, New Jersey; Louisville; and Gainesville, Florida.

The Spartans (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten) emerged from that stretch with five wins. But they are entering a December lull in which they will play three games over the final three weeks of the calendar year.

Green Bay, Oakland and Northern Illinois — which have Sagarin Rankings ranging from 169-223 — might not match the level of the early-season competition. But that is a separate challenge MSU must overcome: avoiding complacency.

“You just remind everybody to not get comfortable,” senior captain Matt McQuaid said. “This is an important part of the year going into Christmas break, right before Big Ten (resumes). So these next games are important to us.”

Izzo understands coaches and players prefer to be playing at this point in the season, which makes having so few opportunities to do so this month problematic. However, when talking about the condensed stretch from late November to early December that got accelerated with an early start in Big Ten play, Izzo said “neither one of them are good for you.”

“So there’s gotta be a little more balance,” Izzo said. “Some of it is us. But some of it is people that are making decisions that are clueless.”

One thing the 24th-year coach does like is the ability to get more practice time between the Dec. 21 game against Oakland and the Dec. 29 visit from Northern Illinois, especially next week before taking time off for Christmas. That, he believes, will help prepare younger players for when Big Ten play resumes at home Jan. 2 against Northwestern.

“From Friday (this week) to Friday (next week), the freshmen are going to have my attention. But so are the sophomores and juniors,” Izzo said. “We have to get some practice in. … What really has frustrated me this week is I think our guys haven’t been used to getting after it in practice, because we haven’t had that for a month. So I’m living for Monday.”

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

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