ATLANTA | Auburn knows what kind of challenge Michigan State brings on offense. Bruce Pearl has experience facing a Tom Izzo-coached team in the NCAA Tournament.
The Spartans play a hard-nosed, grind-it-out offense that, this year, features three guards that can get downhill and to the rim. With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the Tigers plan on putting their money on what has brought them this far this season: their defense.
"We just hang our hats on our defense," Denver Jones said. "We just let our defense dictate our offense. I feel like that's the main reason why we're so successful. When we lock in on defense, we kinda just let everything else take care of itself. That's what helped us get over the hump last night."
Auburn turned the pressure up to 11 on Friday night in the win against Michigan, using a suffering defense to turn what was a nine-point deficit into a 12-point victory. Michigan guard Tre Donaldson was scoreless in the second half as four Wolverines' guards combined for just 15 points in the final 20 minutes.
Miles Kelly and his teammates plan on bringing that same mentality that broke the will of Michigan into the game on Sunday.
"Just doing what we've been doing the whole season -- just making other teams' guards uncomfortable," the guard said. "We know they run off their guards, and they like to run in transition, so we've just got to make them uncomfortable and take them out of their looks and stick to that."
The Spartans are led by freshman phenom Jase Richardson, who scored 20 points in the victory over Ole Miss on Friday evening. He's joined by senior Jaden Akins (13 points against the Rebels) and Jeremy Fears Jr. (7.3 points per game) that form the trio that Auburn will need to contain to make it to San Antonio.
That challenge is something that has been instilled in Jones' system since he was young.
"It's like my personal challenge, just because I don't like being scored on," he said. "It kinda makes me take more pride in my defense. And, plus, just growing up, both of my parents were defensive-minded. That's how I was brought up. That kinda feeds into that as well."
