As much as Michigan State still wants to see a win on the scoreboard after Sunday’s game, what it really wants to see is progress. The kind of postseason form that Izzo usually gets out of his best teams in the home stretch. There are a few areas he wants to see particular improvements, particularly with respect to turnovers.

“I went back and looked at all the teams this week in the top 25,” Izzo said. “There’s some teams now, I think Houston is like six or seven (turnovers). When you’re that ridiculously low, teams that are high — and we’re one of them — taking it down a little bit, we’re one of them. I think that’s gotta be cleaned up or it could be a problem in the Tournament, because every possession matters.”

Individually, there are some players who want to take steps, too. Edging his way out of a month-long slump with a big first-half burst against UCLA, forward Jaxon Kohler is figuring out how to work with the double-team looks that teams have thrown at him all season. The floor-stretching senior says it’s a matter of respect to him to face those kinds of looks. It only serves to open up a teammate when he gets swarmed.

“If they want to double team me, that’s their choice,” Kohler said. “I mean, it’s physical, but that’s my role on this team is to be the physical guy, you know, the dirty work guy. And even though it is taxing at some point, like I said earlier, it’s a mental battle. You have to convince yourself that I’m not fatigued, I’m not taxed. This is what I do every day, and this is how I play the game, and it’s competitive.”

That mental battle can have big implications on games in March.

“If they want to try to be more physical than me or try to push me harder, then I’m gonna push them harder, you know,” Kohler continued. “I’m gonna raise my game. I’m gonna raise my stakes. And at this point of the year, you have to kind of find another gear to push yourself toward to make sure that you can out-tough them.”

Michigan State will need everything it can get out of Kohler when the games come with no guarantees. Just when he has made progress in one area of his game, he has to take more steps. It actually excited him, he says, to know the clear progression of where his game can expand.

“That’s the next step to my game, I feel like, is if the shot isn’t quite there, what do I do from there?” Kohler said. “… I understand too, that I’m not gonna go crazy right now and start doing things that no one’s ever seen. But … if I have a chance to develop a good pump fake, one-two shot, mid-range shot, I’m going to work on that, because I know teams are going to be closed down really heavy.”

For Fears — whose All-Big Ten and player of the year candidacy took some hits when a few temperamental plays caught scorn from the public and Michigan coach Dusty May — there’s another level to claim, too. He’s been lightning most of this season, leading the country with 9.3 assists and averaging 15.1 points per game on top of that. Yet teams have lived with his 3-point shooting all season, which he made UCLA pay for with a career high four 3-pointers.

“We all have a goal. We all have a thing we’re trying to do. And in order for that, you have to be utmost focused,” Fears said. “Put in extra time and do everything ‘why not?’ You know, you’re guaranteed a month and a half of this season left. So why not lay it all out there and try to string together some games and be playing your best basketball as a team?