It wasn’t the prettiest of wins for the Michigan State men's basketball team on Friday night over the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Spartans had a 14-point lead in the early stages of the second half, but they let Ohio State storm all the way back and take the lead.

Once the Buckeyes went in front, Michigan State flipped a switch. Turnovers were a big issue all game (16), but Spartans didn’t turn the ball over in the final seven minutes and 59 seconds on their way to a 69-62 victory to improve to 3-0 in Big Ten play.

“We returned to Big Ten play with, I think, an impressive win,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said on Monday about the victory over the Buckeyes. “I mean, that’s a team that beat Kentucky by 20 and has a very good team. We were on the road, got a lead, yes we lost the lead, but we bounced back.”

This game encapsulated the cliche that an ugly win is better than a pretty loss. The less than stellar performance shows the team that there are some things to work on while not displaying a loss on the record.

One thing Izzo thinks his team has is grit. His players seem to think so as well. After the win against Ohio State, senior guard Jaden Akins, who has been through the battles of a Big Ten basketball season, spoke to the team.

“The first thing he said was, ‘Hey, a year ago, we lost five games like this and now we came back and won one,’” Izzo said about Akins.