By
Keith Carmona
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Lute Olson's strategy for the Michigan State Spartans is easy. If you want to beat them, copy them.
Long before the Wildcats knew they would be playing MSU in the NCAA Tournament Semifinals, Olson had his team relentlessly watching tapes, studying the Spartan rebounding.
In December, when the Wildcats were in a bit of a funk, Olson hoped to inspire his team by showing how Michigan State big men Zach Randolph, Andre Hutson and Al Anagonye were crashing the boards.
And what better team to learn from? After losing two of its stars from last season's National Championship team, MSU head coach Tom Izzo has developed the Spartans into the top rebounding team in the country.
The Wildcats grew eager to make improvements.
"It kind of makes you want to play them," senior forward Justin Wessel said. "When coach brings in a tape of another team and tries to show you what to do, you're like 'Hey, wait a minute. We can do that just as good or better than them. Let's go do it, let's face them.'"
Funny how things come full circle.
Since they watched the tapes three months ago, the Wildcats have turned up their rebounding prowess, tallying an average of 14.5 more rebounds than their opponents each game.
Impressive? Yes, but Izzo's squad now outrebounds its opponents by nearly 19 boards per game.
So, Wessel and the Wildcats now not only have their chance to test their refined skills against the best, but get to do it on college basketballs largest stage.
But if UA is intent upon winning, they ought to not use the same strategy that garnered them one offensive rebound in the first half against Illinois, a team quite similar to MSU. With that in mind, Olson said he plans on stressing rebounding drills in practice this week.
"I think we'll match up fine with (MSU), but we just need to do the job on the boards," he said. "And it's not just one guy that needs to do it because they send four guys to the boards everytime. It can't be the case of anybody not doing their job by getting (an MSU player) on their back or in the lane to rebound."
That's just fine by senior forward Gene Edgerson, who said he adores the Spartans' techniques.
"With their rebounding, they just have bodies they can bring in and out, so we'll just have to stay tough," he said. "There is a lot of talk about 'the toughest team is going to win'. I think there is a lot of truth to that."
But the UA guards may have troubles in outrebounding their adversaries.
MSU's Jason Richardson and Charlie Bell combined for 10.4 rebounds per game while UA's sophomore backcourt of Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner only snatch up 6.8 per game.
"They are bangers," Gardner said. "With Charlie Bell's senior leadership, they have some guards that we can't afford to look past. Everyone sees them as an inside team, guys like Bell and Richardson can be threats too."
Olson would not say who will be guarding Richardson, MSU's most prolific scorer, but all signs point toward junior wing Richard Jefferson.
The two boast similar athleticism and with the feat of limiting Illinois' Frank Williams under his belt, Jefferson seems the obvious choice.
But with this being Final Four week, Olson has everything under wraps.
The only indication of Jefferson's assignment he would give was that, "We're going to play him."
