No word on the severity of Maurice Joseph's right foot injury yet, but any time Joseph misses is too much time for the dangerously thin Spartans.

Joseph hurt his foot in Saturday's 76-61 win over BYU when he landed awkwardly on a 3-pointer near the end of the first half. He made his second consecutive start Saturday in place of freshman wing Raymar Morgan, who is out one to four more weeks with a stress fracture in his shin. If both players are sidelined, true freshman Isaiah Dahlman will slide into the starting lineup, leaving walk-on DeMarcus Ducre as MSU's first backcourt option off the bench.

MSU should be able to survive the rest of its non-conference slate without both Joseph and Morgan � games against Chicago State, Belmont, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Loyola remain � and enter the Big Ten season with a school-record 13 preseason wins and a top-20 ranking.

But the amount of minutes starters Drew Neitzel and Travis Walton log now could come back to haunt the team in March. We saw how overuse cut short the Pistons' championship run last year, and Neitzel and Walton are averaging 33.5 and 32 minutes, respectively. They played a combined 71 minutes against the Cougars Saturday (38 by Neitzel), and those numbers will become common once the calendar flips to January.

MSU is an NCAA tournament team, but one with a limited ceiling because of its lack of offense. To reach their full potential, the Spartans need a full compliment of players.