Surprise Spartans will battle UNC in the paint

It was supposed to be like this.

With only four college basketball teams in the nation still playing, two of them hail from the same conference.

But that conference wasn’t supposed to be the Big Ten. And that second team was not supposed to be Michigan State.

“Well, I can’t say that we totally expected to go to a Final Four,” said Spartan coach Tom Izzo. “I expected to have a great year with the nucleus of the guys that went to the Elite Eight two years ago, with the addition of a Shannon Brown.

“You know, you always dream it. But reality is it’s been a little bit of a surprise.”

Even if his team’s run caught the Spartan coach unaware, MSU won’t be able to sneak up on its competition any longer.

With the season on the line and a week of preparation, it’s unlikely North Carolina will regard its semifinal opponent lightly.

The Spartans (26-6) are balanced and versatile. They have an eight-man rotation that can be extended to 10 and six players averaging at least 9 points per game.

Izzo’s starting lineup consists of three guards (Brown, Maurice Ager and freshman point Drew Neitzel), one power forward who used to play point guard (Alan Anderson) and a 6-foot-11 double-double machine manning the center (Paul Davis).

Davis, who’s averaged 12.2 points and 7.8 rebounds, has logged a double-double in each of MSU’s last three games.

“Paul’s about as good as they get,” said UNC center Sean May. “I think he’ll try to do some of the same things he did with Shelden (Williams) — maybe try to foul me out and attack me inside.

“But I always tell (Coach Roy Williams) that a good post player has to play both ends, they have to defend and play on the offensive end.”

Michigan State is nothing if not efficient on offense: The Spartans led the Big Ten in shooting percentage, netting 49.4 percent of their attempts.

They also shoot an astounding 77.7 percent from the free-throw line, with four players tickling the twine at clip of better than 80 percent.

That’s a number that’s sure to scare North Carolina, in light of the numerous overtime games in last weekend’s Elite Eight and the knowledge that stellar free-throw shooting by Duke and Wake Forest played a huge role in those two teams’ victories against the Tar Heels earlier this season.

One way the Tar Heels can avoid another similar performance is to make sure that it’s them at the line and not the Spartans, and one way to do that is run, run and run some more.

“Most of the time when we do our running, we try to get the big men out of the game,” said UNC forward David Noel. “And if we can run Paul Davis and get him in early foul trouble, I think that’ll take a lot away from them. … It’ll definitely be a situation where we run, but we’re going to run smart.”

North Carolina will have to play smart in order to minimize the effects of Michigan State’s bruising defense, which the Spartans are using to limit their opponents to only 64.8 points per game.

But at this point, maybe all MSU needs to do is believe.

“We knew we could make it to the Final Four, but we just had to prove it to ourselves,” Davis said. “Now, we feel like we belong here.

“This is where Michigan State University belongs. Now, we have to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.