NCAA Tournament: USC's Andy Enfield, Boogie Ellis preview Michigan State matchup

Enfield and Ellis discussed the matchup after practice on Monday

No. 10 seed USC will take on No. 7 seed Michigan State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. Tipoff is at 9:15 am PST.

Ahead of the encounter, USC head coach Andy Enfield and guard Boogie Ellis addressed reporters to preview the matchup after practice on Monday. 

"We were able to watch some video last night and today," Enfield said. "They have very good guards like we do. They're a really good three-point shooting team. They were 42% in league from behind the three-point line. That's pretty good. So we have to guard the three-point line obviously and our guards have to play well."

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Michigan State senior guard Tyson Walker leads the Spartans scoring 14.6 points per game. Senior forward Joey Hauser averages 14.2 points per game and junior guard A.J. Hoggard scores 12.5 per contest. Walker shoots 42.3% from deep and Hauser shoots 45.6% from three.

"I watched a lot of film last night on Michigan State," Ellis added. "They're a great team, but they don't have a guy that's like crazy. They play together. They're a great team. They're very guard oriented so this is a great game for us being a guard oriented team."

In USC's last game, the Trojans dropped a 77-72 contest to Arizona State in the Pac-12 Tournament. USC will have to play at a quicker pace against Michigan State to win, according to Ellis. 

"I did a bad job of walking the ball up the floor and not sprinting to the corner against Arizona State," he said. "We need to make sure we're playing a lot faster."

Ellis also mentioned that he expects Michigan State to guard him very physically. 

"Embracing the contact and changing speeds to get to my spots will be important," he said.

Michigan State finished in fourth place in Big Ten. The Spartans come into the game with a 19-12 record. USC ended the regular season in third place in the Pac-12. The Trojans are 22-10 on the year.