Wildcats, Spartans Look in the Mirror

There is not much suspense involving today’s Austin Regional championship game at the Frank Erwin Center.

Second-seeded Kentucky will make the scorer’s table resemble a NASCAR pit stop with its nonstop player substitution patterns.

And so will fifth-seeded Michigan State.

The Wildcats will play slap-the-court defense and look to swarm and exhaust their opponent’s primary scoring options with waves of fresh faces.

The Spartans will do the same.

There is no real “go-to” guy at Kentucky.

“We don’t really have one star,” forward Kelenna Azubuike said.

“We don’t have any stars,” Michigan State guard Maurice Ager countered.

Any Kentucky player who allows an uncontested layup can expect to be seated next to Coach Tubby Smith.

Any Michigan State man who plays matador defense can expect to draw splinters next to Tom Izzo.

“They are an experienced team,” Kentucky forward Chuck Hayes said. “They have a solid group of veterans. They take after their coach like we do. You have two teams that are practically the same.”

Overtime rules ensure Kentucky or Michigan State will win today and advance to next weekend’s Final Four, but a tie after regulation would not come as a shock.

No one expects this game to be pretty, either -- more elbows and knees than slam dunks and threes.

Both schools are perennial powers that reflect how the college game has changed.

Kentucky won the national title in 1996 with a cavalcade of stars and future NBA players. Michigan State’s 2000 title team was similarly star-studded (think Mateen Cleaves, Jason Richardson and Mo Peterson).

With more superstars leaving college early or not arriving at all, Kentucky and Michigan State have found different ways to get to the same place.

This new thinking features more players, fewer stars, with playing time getting divvied up like precious pieces of fudge.

“Every minute you are out there you have to spill it,” said Michigan State’s Alan Anderson, who averages a team-leading 26.4 minutes a game. “Whatever it takes, diving on the ground, getting loose balls. You know you will come out of the game and come back in.”

Kentucky is making its 10th regional final since 1985; this marks Michigan State’s fifth appearance in the last seven years.

In this business, though, you adapt or get left behind.

So Kentucky used 13 players in Friday’s victory over Utah. Ten players played 11 minutes or more.

“We thought we played a lot of guys,” Michigan State’s Izzo said Saturday.

Michigan State played 13 players vs. Duke, with eight players logging 11 minutes or more.

It will be interesting to see how two similar teams attack each other.

Friday, Michigan State used sets of fresh legs to knock Duke guards J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing off their games -- and it worked. Redick and Ewing combined to make only 11 of 30 attempts.

Kentucky used three players 6 feet 10 or taller to lean on, and wear out, Utah star Andrew Bogut.

“The bench has been big for us all tournament,” Azubuike said of the Kentucky role players. “They have really gotten better every game. They picked us up whenever someone got in foul trouble.”

You expect Kentucky will use bodies to try to nullify 6-11 Michigan State junior center Paul Davis, who has emerged from a funk to become a force in this tournament -- he’s averaging 15 points and 10.7 rebounds in three tournament wins.

Granted, the teams are not virtual clones.

Michigan State makes only 25% of its three-point tries to Kentucky’s 34%.

Michigan State is the better rebounding team and is a little more experienced than Kentucky, which starts two freshmen in guard Rajon Rondo and center Randolph Morris.

Kentucky has a little more punch at the end of its bench.

But consider this: Michigan State beat Duke by 10 on Friday

And Kentucky beat Utah by 10.