WATCH: Michigan State's Jaxon Kohler Previews Sweet 16
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Michigan State junior forward Jaxon Kohler is looking to make it to the first Elite Eight of his career, and to do so, he and the Spartans will have to get through a tough Ole Miss team.
The veteran has only combined for 8 points so far in the tournament -- a more impactful offensive performance from him would only help the Spartans in Friday's Sweet 16 matchup.
Kohler previewed the upcoming opponent and more when he addressed the media on Tuesday.
You can watch some of his availability below:
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo spoke to the media earlier in the day. Below is a transcript of his opening statement:
Izzo: "I guess the first thing is it's great to be in the Sweet 16. I mean, it really is. It's something that, even though we've done it a decent amount of times, I definitely don't take for granted. It's a privilege, and it means you've survived what a lot of people failed at.
"What I love most about the last game is, after the last game, it was players that said, 'We are practicing tomorrow, Coach.' And usually, we do give them Monday off, and we did practice. Film session, little more, but we went a decent amount of time to try to get some things done.
"I think, as you get to the Sweet 16, the fever starts. You kind of realize now that there's only 16 teams left. So, even though we got back late, we got right into Ole Miss. I know them from the Texas Tech days; they're very well-coached, tough. Coach [Chris] Beard is -- his teams are tougher than nails, and I felt like we weren't ready for that up in Minnesota. And that's surprising because I think we're usually a tough team.
"But I think we have a group of guys now that understand, we've played so many different styles, there's so many new coaches in our league, and yet this one creates some other problems. They're smaller, yet physical. They defend in a swarming way. They don't have a true, true post all the time, but they got a versatile guy in [Malik] Dia that can score it in a lot of different places.
"They dominated what I think is a good Iowa State team. They had them down 26 at one time, and they've beaten BYU, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee. I mean, they've beaten a lot of players. They got six guys in double figures, led by [Sean] Pedulla, who has more than 80 3s. [Jaylen] Murray is a lightning-quick guard, smaller guard. Forwards -- [Jaemyn] Brakefield, we actually recruited a little bit before he went to Duke. So, I know a little bit about him. And the team is shooting 49% from the 3 in the NCAA Tournament, which is incredible.
"So, we got our work out. It's a good team that I think has gotten better as the year's gone on. And they might not have finished quite as high because the league had so many good teams, and I really don't know who they played once or twice in that league, but I know that they'll be well-coached, well-prepared and have faced major competition all year long."
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