NCAA ELITE EIGHT Kentucky, Michigan State share depth dominance

Tubby Smith has used 13 players in each of the Wildcats' last two games.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Tom Izzo can look down the Michigan State bench and smile. Even when his five starters are on the court, he still has four guys he's comfortable using.
Pretty impressive, even for one of the final eight teams in the NCAA tournament.
Yet it's still not as good as Kentucky's depth.
The Wildcats have used 13 players in each of their last two games. Coach Tubby Smith emptied his bench by halftime in the second round against Cincinnati and got in all but two in the first half against Utah on Friday night.
Even Izzo was left shaking his head at that.
"We thought we played a lot of guys," he said Saturday.
Call them deep and deeper. And when Kentucky (28-5) and Michigan State (25-6) play today in the final of the Austin Regional, expect their endless rosters to produce a coaching chess match between Izzo and Smith, each mixing up their lineup to counter the other's personnel, force mismatches and change the tempo.
The reward for the team that does it best: a trip to the Final Four.
Similar lineups
"Neither team has that one true superstar or everybody's All-American," said Kentucky senior Chuck Hayes, the closest either team has to a national headliner. "You can say we are pretty much similar."
The Wildcats have four players who average 20-plus minutes, five more in the teens. The Spartans rely on six players for at least 22 minutes, with three more between 10 and 16.
Hayes is Kentucky's most-used player at 29.1 minutes a game. Alan Anderson tops Michigan State with 26.4.
That doesn't mean it's easy keeping everyone happy.
Sacrifices
Smith and Izzo worked hard to recruit all their blue chippers, then had to sell them again on sacrificing their numbers for the greater good of the team. You try doing that with guys 18 to 21, all with NBA aspirations, most having always been on teams that revolved around them.
"It works well because Coach Izzo does not allow any egos," said Maurice Ager, just a tick behind Anderson as Michigan State's top scorer. "All of the egos go out the window and that solves half the problem right there."
The sacrifices players have made is best illustrated by the season-ending honors for both teams. Or, rather, the lack of them.
The Spartans had no all-Big Ten selections in media voting. Anderson made the second team and Ager and Paul Davis were third-teamers.
The Wildcats fared only slightly better in the Southeastern Conference. Hayes made first team, Patrick Sparks landed on the second team and Kelenna Azubuike made the third team. Hayes was the only player on either team to get any AP All-America votes, but only enough to make honorable mention.