At least all the Spartans not named Keith Appling. The Billikens sagged of the sophomore guard and dared him to shoot. Appling has struggled with his shot all season, but he can still find the bucket when needed.

Early in the game, Appling was hesitant to pull the trigger, but then senior forward Draymond Green reminded him he shot 41 percent from behind the arc last season.

Then Green found Appling wide open in the corner for what turned out to be a dagger in the hearts of the Billikens.

“I remember those things,” Green said. “He had just hit three shots prior to that. And his confidence hadn’t gotten rolling, and one thing I want him to always know is I have confidence in him.”

That three bounced around the rim for a while before it dropped in the net, and in the wait, Appling was just happy his team had his back.

“All night they pretty much had begged me to shoot the ball,” he said.

Saint Louis played Appling like coach Rick Majerus thought was best. But in the end, that ended up hurting them.

“I give them credit for that,” head coach Tom Izzo said. “It’s hard to sit there and let people go after you. That takes a lot of character and courage to do that after the game went like that.”

And Izzo made sure Appling knew the benefit of making a couple shots.

“I feel comfortable with Keith taking the right shots,” Izzo said. “(It) was nice to see him come full circle, because that is hard when somebody’s backing off of you if you’re not ready for it. He’ll be ready for it if somebody else wants to try it.”