EAST LANSING – Delvon Roe's tattoo of Michigan State's recognizable mascot Sparty drew a lot of buzz at Michigan State's basketball media day.

Roe got the tattoo last October.

"I wanted something to resemble my commitment to the program and my goals for this program."

And if Michigan State achieves those goals during Roe's time in East Lansing, the Spartan fan base and the entire college basketball world will heed the advice of the other tattoo on Roe's left shoulder.

"Remember the Name"

Roe has yet to play a single college basketball game. But he has already been identified, fairly or unfairly, as the missing ingredient that can transform a basketball team that won 27 games and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen into a Big Ten Champion and National Championship contender.

Roe is not the first player to bear that type of burden at Michigan State. Shannon Brown, Paul Davis, Kelvin Torbert, and other McDonald's All-American's signed during the Tom Izzo era at Michigan State have all been yoked with high expectations. Each of those players had fine careers at Michigan State and two of the three are in the NBA. But none of those former Spartans lived up to the unrealistic expectations people had for them during their freshman seasons at Michigan State.

Why should Roe be any different?

For starters, Roe seems to thrive on that type of pressure. Like Kalin Lucas last season, Roe has supreme self-confidence and he has a work ethic and drive unlike anything Tom Izzo has seen before.

"I'm ready," said Roe. "Any player that dreams to play basketball or any other sport wants to be one of the players that everybody talks about or one of the players that can help the team win a national championship. I feel like I am capable of doing that. I also feel like this team is more capable."

Roe may be able to handle the spotlight and pressure. But in the eyes of Izzo that pressure shouldn't be placed on the freshman's shoulders yet.

"It's too much to put on a freshman that's gone through what he's gone through," said Izzo. "It's not too much to put on a freshman of his caliber, meaning both physically and mentally. This kid has got the whole package. He's smart enough. He's an incredible worker. And he's talented enough. Nine months off, as Magic said two and a half weeks ago when he was here watching a work-out: "You know, myself or Michael could not take nine months off and be the same player."

Even after being on the shelf for 9 months while recovering from micro-fracture surgery, there is not a single player on Michigan State's roster that would bet against their freshman teammate making the type of impact Izzo hoped he would when he signed the 6-foot-7 combo forward out of Lakewood St. Edward, an athletic powerhouse in Cleveland, Ohio.

If anything, Roe's teammates have been amazed by the way the talented Ohioan has handled injury and refused to let it deter him during his time at Michigan State.

"He is a great guy," said junior Raymar Morgan. "He is a hard worker. He stays in the gym and brings it every time he steps on the floor. He is very determined to get back into shape and getting his legs back."

Morgan went through an injury as a true freshman. A stress reaction suffered during the Bradley game during the 2006-2007 sidelined the former Canton McKinley star for a significant stretch during his freshman season. That injury also curtailed the development of Morgan to certain extent, although he was able to come back and finish that first year strong despite the loss of some of his athleticism.

"I just told him to be patient because it will come," explained Morgan. "It's just a time process. If he just waits and works at it really hard, I think he will be alright."

With Michigan State's grueling schedule, patience will be important. There will be plenty of on the job training with Roe.

"The hard thing is I'll have to make some tough decisions early," explained Izzo. "Do you go with him if he's healthy and let him fail a little bit, let him go through his growing pains a little bit. We don't have one of those schedules where he could still do it and still one, so some of that might be costly. I do have a lot of faith in this kid. I just have no idea how you respond to that. If you looked at it realistically, you know, whether it be NBA guys that have called or other guys, it's going to take some time."

While Izzo urges caution about expecting too much from Roe too soon, there remains optimism about the impact the talented Ohioan can have for the Spartans as a true freshman.

"When I look at that kid and watch him work out for 40 minutes three days a week," said Izzo, "I say, I think he can speed the process. But as we start going now to move to two and a half hours, day after day after day, so many questions will be answered in the next two weeks. I said, phase one would be after the two or three weeks we practiced, and I've been very pleased with that progress with him. Now the next one will be can you go day-to-day to day and there's some banging and physicalness and you can pick up things. I think those things will be answered the next couple of weeks."

Biding his time for the last 9 months has been difficult for Roe. He admits that he relishes the opportunity to put on a show for the fans this Friday Night at Midnight Madness.

"I am very excited," said Roe. "I have been waiting for this for a long time. It is any player's dream to come out and play for a top team in the country and be out here for the first time as a player in front of the fans and to get the thrill of college basketball. It is going to be great."

When asked what his limitations where in coming off of his injury, Roe will only acknowledge that he has lagged behind in conditioning.

"My knee is great right now," explained Roe. "I've been playing on it for about six weeks right now. I was cleared to play September 16th and I've been going full speed. I think I am at around 75 or 80 percent right now and I expect to be a 100 percent soon. Most of it is conditioning. I am getting my conditioning up right now. I haven't played in 9 or 10 months. When that gets up there I will be fine."

Michigan State coaches have been impressed with the progression of Roe coming off of the injury.

"They say that I have been great," said Roe. "I think I have impressed them. They think that I have been coming along a lot sooner than they thought I would be. Coach thought that I was about three or four weeks ahead of schedule on the basketball court. Mostly, it's been getting my conditioning back."