Tom Crean met with the media this afternoon and talked about the bevy of problems the Hoosiers will encounter tomorrow when they take on Tom Izzo's Spartans.
At the top of the list of things that concern Crean is Michigan State's transition offense, one Crean says will being moving 110 miles per hour and is one of the best in the country.
"There's not a fast break that's like Michigan State's right now," Crean said. "We can prepare all we want - and we do work on transition defense - but they'll have seen nothing like what they'll see tomorrow and we've got to be fearful of what's going to happen if we don't get back."
Crean's also concerned with how his team will handle playing in the Breslin Center - an environment the coach anticipates being one of the most difficult his team will encounter this year.
Most times this season when IU has played in a true road environment, (Northwestern not really counting seeing as the crowd was split amongst Northwestern and IU fans,) the Hoosiers have come out flat.
"They know that's our Achilles heel, I mean everybody knows that," Crean said. "So we've got to be able to come out and play through that. And we really haven't at this point."
Crean said his young team needs to simply stay focused on the Spartans and not on the Izzone.
"We have to keep realizing we're not playing against the crowd," Crean said. "We're playing against those five guys."
One of those five sure to give IU fits will be sophomore point guard Kalin Lucas. Lucas leads the Spartans in points (15.0) and assists (5.0) per game, and is the ring leader of the aforementioned fast-break attack.
"He's tremendously fast," Dumes said. "He's very good with the ball. It'll be a great opportunity to guard him."
A rowdy crowd, a quick strike offense and one of the premier point guards in the country await the Hoosiers on Saturday. Can they overcome it all and shock Michigan State? Or will this be a game similar to the Wake Forest, Kentucky and Illinois debacles?
