“Hopefully they’ll shoot a lot better than we did and make some shots around the basket. We’re not a great shooting team by any stretch and obviously Kansas had something to do with that. But the one thing that we really felt was the key was to contain (Sherron Collins) in the open court. Their fast break over the last month of the season was really good and actually it was very similar to Michigan State’s. Collins would get so deep on the outlet passes that he’d be on top of the defense in one or two dribbles.

“Make (Cole Aldrich) play just one foot further out than he wants to. Michigan State rotated guys and (senior center Idong Ibok) and (senior center Goran Suton) did a great job on him (last time) and when our center got into some foul trouble we couldn’t do a great job. Those two guys are the keys and the guy who had been playing great the last four or five games was (Tyshawn Taylor). In the last five games going into our game he had played excellent.

“For Michigan State I think their defensive pressure will be important, their defense against ball screens will be important and post defense will be important and all that stems from if they can contain Collins. If they can do a good job with those three points on defense, then I think they’ll have a good chance.”