Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo said he would be handling a totally different animal with his Spartans this season.

He wasn"t kidding.

Losing 10 players in the past two seasons five of whom were NBA draft picks the Spartans will most likely have three or four walk-ons on their roster to start the season.

While Izzo said that his team is "not as good as Illinois and Iowa right now, maybe a few other teams," he hasn"t changed his expectations.

"It"s going to be done differently," Izzo said. "But we expect the world. We expect to win another championship."

This past season the Spartans lost seven letterwinners that accounted for over 75 percent of their points, rebounds and assists.

"It"s a different team," Izzo said. "We"re extremely, extremely young and extremely short in numbers."

Winning a fifth-straight conference crown will not be easy, for Izzo and his young and inexperienced Spartans.

In previous years, star seniors like Charlie Bell, Andre Hutson and Mateen Cleaves have given freshmen models to follow in practice.

But not this year.

"We have to be more patient and understanding," Izzo said. "Now we need to walk every single guy through every single thing which is a negative. But it"s fun because we get to teach again."

The team is so different that Izzo and his coaching staff are looking back to the 1997-98 season for an ideal comparison on how they should run things with so many underclassmen playing big roles. Freshmen Mateen Cleaves, Andre Hutson and Charlie Bell started for that team, which began the season 4-3 but came on when it needed to by going 22-8 and winning the Big Ten title.

"We really have taken a look at when we had our meetings, met for films, and held 7 a.m. walkthroughs," Izzo said. The coaching staff "will have to work a little harder and so will I."

On the floor, Izzo said most of the pressure will be on his talented backcourt duo of sophomore Marcus Taylor and freshman phenom Kelvin Torbert. Izzo said they need to lead the way in terms of scoring, and on defense by guarding the top players in the conference.

Taylor"s "got to have a Magic Johnson, super sophomore year," Izzo said. "I compared Marcus" stats to any guard in the country and they were every bit as good. I think he"s improved defensively, and his workouts are so much different that it"s scary."

Izzo said Taylor has stood out more than anyone in practice thus far and is the

"best conditioned guy on the team." Such stamina will be needed, as Taylor is expected to do everything, including rebound, where Michigan State has been at its best the past two seasons. Izzo says they need to master rebounding again for his team to be successful.

Another battle will be keeping junior forward Aloysius Anagonye on the floor and out of foul trouble as he is Michigan State"s lone post presence.

Foul trouble "is a worry that and injuries," Izzo said. "Injuries can be a problem. If we get a couple guys with the flu, we"re going to have to cancel practice and come in at night and practice."

The youthful Spartans have a challenging nonconference schedule that sends them to tough venues such as Florida, Virginia and Stanford, along with home contests against Arizona and Seton Hall.

"It"s going to be tough," Izzo said. "Our team will develop on how we handle the first part of the schedule. "We"ll have some bumps in the road early just as we did in 1997 but our job is to get more ready for Big Ten and to be best team we can be at end of year."

Critics may be against the Spartans winning another conference title, but Izzo doesn"t seem that worried, and his confidence has spread throughout the team.

"You"ve got to love that he"s standing behind us with so much confidence, not making excuses about who"s here and who"s not," junior forward Adam Ballinger said. "It means a lot to us and hopefully we can prove it on the court."