“We want to earn something our way, the Michigan State way,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “We have so much to play for left this season, it’s good to feel good for five minutes and put it away. Celebrating things is what you do at the end of the year, not during the year. Now comes the hard part: Indiana.”

At Monday’s press conference, both Izzo and senior forward Draymond Green preached the importance to leaving a ‘footprint’ and legacy as a team.

“We’re in the perfect position, you just have to keep the eyes on the prize, keeping the same focus level,” Green said. “We’re playing for a lot more than sharing a title. We talk about leaving a mark, and that’s just another way to leave the mark.”

Although the Spartans have gotten through the bulk of their season without many hurdles, two of the toughest tests remain with the trip to Indiana and hosting Ohio State on March 4.

The Hoosiers are 16-1 at Assembly Hall this season, including wins over No. 1 Kentucky and then-No. 2 Ohio State. Izzo said the fans at Indiana are some of the most passionate and knowledgeable fans in the country.

“It’s going to be interesting. I’m sure the place will be crazy,” Izzo said. “What better place to try and capture an outright championship than on somebody else’s floor.”

And like the fans, the Hoosiers are no slouches, averaging a Big Ten-best 72.2 points per game, led by forwards Cody Zeller and Christian Watford.

In the Dec. 28, 2011 meeting when MSU bested Indiana 80-65, centers junior Derrick Nix and sophomore Adreian Payne held Zeller to four points and four rebounds. Since then, he has vastly improved, Izzo said.

“(Indiana head coach Tom Crean) has done an incredible job with the team,” Izzo said. “Zeller is a much better player, just as (MSU freshman guard) Branden Dawson is a better player.”

As a former assistant under Izzo — from 1995 to 1999 — Crean knows the MSU program and provides interesting scouting and matchups every time the coaches meet. However, Crean is 0-6 as a coach against MSU.

But Izzo said the scouting reports aren’t as identical anymore as they were back when Crean first left MSU.

“Early on, they ran everything we ran, we ran everything they ran, but now we get on our separate ways, I don’t enjoy it,” Izzo said. “It’s not to the point we know each other as well as we used to.”
But Izzo has a great amount of respect for Crean and the assistance he provided in Izzo’s beginnings as head coach.

“I always look at Tom as someone who helped me build this (program). It turned into a great thing for me and Michigan State,” Izzo said. “I don’t think I could have got it done those first couple years without him.”

Green said the game might not turn out the same way it did at Breslin Center, but it’ll be a good matchup.

“Coach Crean will have us scouted out,” he said. “It will be a grind it out game, it’ll come down to who wants it more.”