Minnesota coach Richard Pitino spoke about the differences in preparation between facing a team the Gophers haven’t played before in Louisville, and facing a conference rival. The Spartans defeated Minnesota, 79-55, Feb. 9 in East Lansing.

“I guess from a prep standpoint it's easier, but just because we know who they are, obviously we know they're very, very good,” Pitino said. “I'm not sure it's an advantage, necessarily, but from a short prep time, these guys know what Michigan State is all about. We got a lot of respect for how they do things. It's important to get rest. When you play a physical game like we played yesterday it's important to get rest. But watching the film and putting together a game plan on the court as well as in the film room is important.”

Gopher freshman guard Gabe Kalscheur is coming off a big game against Louisville, scoring 24 points and shooting 5-11 from three-point range. He said he expects more attention from MSU than he got the first time the two teams played, when he scored 17 and made three from deep.

“They’re gonna deny me a lot, so it’s just gonna be coming off screens a lot harder, reading the defense a lot better, and if they’re gonna come at me, I’m gonna have to drive it as well,” Kalscheur said.

Junior point guard Amir Coffey said the hot shooting against Louisville won’t enter much into their mind in tomorrow’s game. The team shot 40.7 percent from three in the game.

“I would say it's a new slate,” Coffey said. “We gotta get past the last one, who shot the ball well. But it might not be like that tomorrow, so go into the game focusing on what we need to do and hopefully we shoot the ball like that again. It would obviously help us, but if we're not we gotta find different ways to score.”

Coffey, who was named to the All-Big Ten third team, was held to just four points in 29 minutes in East Lansing, well below his season average of 16.3.

“I thought they were connected on the defensive end,” Coffey said. “They did well with the ball-screen defense and guarding smash actions (a pass-and-cut play) pretty well. So they were doing things like jumping to the ball and helping the helper. They just played solid that game. And I was off that night as well. So they just did a good job the first time.”

Pitino was asked about the difference between the Minnesota team that lost in East Lansing, part of a four-game losing streak for the Gophers, and the same team a month later. Minnesota has won five of their last seven games, and advanced to the Big Ten tournament semifinals before falling to Michigan, 76-49.

“We've got some confidence going now, beat Purdue twice in ten days,” Pitino said. “They're a terrific team, went in and beat a surging Penn State team and beat a Louisville team yesterday. So probably a confidence factor, feeling those wins, tasting them, offensively we played well and defensively did a lot of good things.”

This game marks the first NCAA tournament match-up between the two schools. Minnesota finished the regular season sixth in the conference at 9-11, while MSU won a share of the Big Ten championship at 16-4 and won the Big Ten tournament.

The winner will go to the East Regional semifinal next Friday in Washington, D.C. and face the winner of third-seeded LSU and sixth-seeded Maryland.