Benford spoke at the podium, and was asked about the matchup between LSU’s big men — 6-foot-10 freshman Naz Reid and 6-foot-11 senior Kavell Bigby-Williams — and Michigan State’s rotation of senior Kenny Goins, junior Nick Ward and sophomore Xavier Tillman.

“Start with Tillman, he's playing really well,” Benford said. “He does a great job getting great position down there. “Then they bring in Nick … those two guys there, they got position on you, it’s over. We’ve got to do our work early in the post.”

Benford compared Goins to Tennessee’s first-team All-Southeastern Conference forward Admiral Schofield in his ability to set screens and pop out to shoot threes. Goins shot 41.4 percent from three in league play, slightly above Schofield’s 39.2 percent.

The Tigers are led by sophomore point guard Tremont Waters, named first-team All-SEC and co-Defensive Player of the Year in the conference alongside Kentucky’s Ashton Hagans. He said he’s looking forward to the challenge of facing MSU’s junior point guard Cassius Winston, the Big Ten Player of the Year.

“Obviously (Winston is) a great all-around player offensively and defensively, but watching film I just see that he's really good in transition,” Waters said. “He controls the offense. He runs the team, and everything pretty much runs through him.”

MSU ranks third in the country in field goal percentage defense, with opponents making only 37.8 percent of their shots. Benford said the game plan is to score early in the shot clock before MSU can set up defensively.

“We have to push the ball,” Benford said. “We've got to try to get easy baskets. We're really good, we've got guards that can make plays. We're good in transition. We've got big guys who can score inside.”

With the rash of MSU injuries (junior guard Joshua Langford and redshirt junior forward Kyle Ahrens are both out for the season with left foot injuries), the Spartans are expected to play a short rotation Friday night. LSU junior shooting guard Skylar Mays said the rotation, or lack thereof, doesn’t change the Tigers’ mindset in attacking MSU.

“Based on the film, they're going to play hard regardless,” Mays said. “Those guys go out there and play as if they've got somebody who is going to give them some rest time. So they play really fast. And I don't think how much depth, per se, they have is going to affect how fast and how hard they play. We can't look at them having six guys playing as an advantage.”

Reid, a 2018 McDonald’s All-American, compared MSU to the Tigers, saying they both play effectively in transition. The Spartans take 21.9 percent of their shots in the fast break, as opposed to LSU’s 19.9 percent, according to HoopMath.

“They're a team that can go,” Reid said. “They play quick. They play fast, kind of like us … They can score the ball. Shoot the ball. They can do a lot of things we can do. They're a great team. They're one of the best teams in the country, I would say. And we're just looking to go after them.”

Benford said playing teams like MSU is bad for his sleeping habits. “Not much sleep,” he said. “There's time to sleep after this. We want to keep this thing going. I don't need much sleep. I want to keep this thing going.”