But this season, MSU (10-4 overall, 2-0 Big Ten) has a new defensive weapon to guard Battle when the teams meet Saturday in State College, Pa. (1 p.m., Big Ten Network).

When men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo talks about what freshman guard Keith Appling brings to his team, he punches the palm of his other hand three times with a smirk on his face.

Izzo has compared the freshman to former Spartan and lock-down defender Charlie Bell, who played at MSU from 1997-2001.

“I’ve got to admit, Keith has that one ingredient that Charlie didn’t even have,” Izzo said. “He’s got some nastiness to him; he’s got some toughness to him. He’s not afraid of anyone; he’s not afraid of (senior guards Kalin Lucas or Durrell Summers).”

And Appling isn’t afraid of Battle either.

“I watched some film on him, he’s a fierce basketball player,” Appling said of Battle. “He’s quick, he can shoot the 3 (and) he plays the screens well, so I’m just looking forward to the challenge.”

Along with Battle, the Nittany Lions (8-6, 1-2) are led by senior forwards Jeff Brooks, Andrew Jones and David Jackson, giving Penn State one of the most experienced starting lineups in the country.

“They’re a funny team,” Izzo said. “Those three big guys inside are really good and they‘ve really got a lot of experience, and yet, they’ve been up and down a little bit.

“But with Battle and those three guys, that’s as much experience as any team in this league. That’s four guys that have started a lot of years.”

Penn State is last in the conference in scoring offense (66.4) and second-last in rebounding margin (plus-0.9). But Battle can single-handedly take over a game, as he scored 17 in a win against MSU in 2008 and 29 in a win at Breslin Center in 2009.

But after a five-block, five-rebound performance against Northwestern on Monday, Appling’s defense no longer is one of the best-kept secrets in the Big Ten.

“Where I come from, Detroit Pershing (High School), we had to play defense so if you don’t play defense, you don’t get to stay on the court so I just look at it that way,” Appling said. “If I don’t play D, I’m not going to be on the court so I just try to go hard every possession.”

That effort was apparent in one of the first practices of the season.

“When we first started playing defense, he was trying to pressure guys from halfcourt and we had to tell him, ‘App, we don’t play D like that. We play help D, from about a foot outside the 3-point line,”’ Lucas said with a laugh. “That’s just something they did in high school and he used to just pick guys up and play aggressive and strong and that’s something we need.”

Izzo’s early Spartan teams were built on the toughness of players out of Flint, Mich., such as Bell. The coach believes Appling brings that same toughness, which will be needed to shut down one of the nation’s premier scorers.

“He’s got what Detroit had, meaning that was the kids coming out of Detroit for a lot of years,” Izzo said as he punched his hand. “Keith Appling has that and I love it.”