“The coaches try to get you to go to sleep, but I know speaking for myself, it’s going to be hard to go to sleep when I know something I know I’ve been dreaming about since I could touch a basketball and been able to know what college basketball was — what the Final Four was — (is coming up),” Walton said.

The senior guard and the rest of the MSU men’s basketball team look to accomplish one of its main preseason goals Sunday when it plays No. 1 seeded Louisville at 2:20 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium in the Elite Eight.

Surprisingly, MSU head coach Tom Izzo said he hasn’t talked in-depth with his team about the Final Four, but said Friday night he would talk to them about it that night at the hotel.

Although he didn’t talk as much about the Final Four as he thought he would, Izzo did say he hit home on his main point — the chance to play in the Final Four so close to home.

“I always preach that families being there and community and your fan base and all that is a big part of winning; you get to celebrate it with people that really care about you,” Izzo said. “So that made it all the more significant and that’s what I reminded them last night.”

Morgan has broken nose
The bad news keeps coming for Raymar Morgan. The junior forward broke his nose early in the second half of Friday’s game when freshman forward Delvon Roe elbowed him while going for a rebound. Before Saturday’s practice, Morgan was fitted for a mask, which he will wear in both practice and the game on Saturday.

After his first fitting, Morgan admitted it was “a little different” wearing a mask.

“It was all right, I guess. I’ve never really played with a broken nose before so I don’t know,” Morgan said of how the mask will affect him. “Vision and looking across is a little hard, but other than that I should be fine.”

Breaking the press
The biggest concern with playing Louisville is its vaunted full-court press, which causes an average of 16 turnovers a game. On Saturday, Izzo broke tradition and let his game plan out publicly. Sort of.

“I mean, the game plan, I’ll give it away if you want it,” Izzo said smiling. “We’ve got to take care of the ball, we can’t let them turn it over and we’ve got to make some shots. How’s that for a game plan?”

On a serious note, the players did say a key to breaking Louisville’s zone press is to get the ball in the middle. With three point guards on the team — Walton, sophomore guard Kalin Lucas and freshman guard Korie Lucious — MSU has the depth at the guard position to do fairly well breaking the press, but another key factor may be the skill set of its bigs.

Morgan said he, Roe, senior center Goran Suton and freshman forward Draymond Green all bring an added dimension of ball handling that should help he Spartans.

“We have different guys who can do different things, so it’s really freeing us up and giving us more options,” Morgan said.