East Lansing, Mich. - Michigan State’s next challenge in its gauntlet of a non-conference schedule comes by way of No. 4 Kentucky on Tuesday. The Spartans will travel to Indianapolis to take on the Wildcats in the annual Champions Classic, just four days after the team’s tightly-contested loss to No. 2 Gonzaga in San Diego.

Junior Mady Sissoko will lead an inexperienced, but improving, Michigan State center group against Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe - another tall task after facing skilled Gonzaga center Drew Timme on Friday.

Timme was a consensus first-team All-America last year. Tshiebwe was National Player of the Year. They are arguably, and likely, the two best players in college basketball. That's quite an assignment for Sissoko and the young Spartan interior.

“The biggest difference is we’re going to go from a team who runs a lot of stuff and does a lot of things and completely goes into their center in Gonzaga, and now we’re going to go into one that is as athletic as maybe any team we’ll play, with a great point guard, but wings that can shoot and have length,” Izzo said.

Tshiebwe, who astounded the college basketball nation last year in Lexington after transferring from West Virginia, led the country in rebounding.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how we all handle [Tshiebwe] because nobody else has handled Oscar very well,” Izzo said. “That’s why you average 17 points and almost 16 rebounds. And yet, we’re going to look at some things that we think we can do and try to take advantage of some things he doesn't do very well.”

Tshiebwe hasn’t played this season due to a minor knee procedure he had in October, but Izzo expects Tshiebwe to make his season debut against Michigan State.

“I’m 99 percent sure he’ll play from all indications I’ve gotten, but it is different,” Izzo said. “How long will he play, what are they going to do, how are they playing with him now, how much has he improved from last year? Those are all things we’re going in not knowing, and that’s a little bit discomforting, to be honest with you.”

Tshiebwe proved to be a handful against nearly every team Kentucky played last season. But Sissoko provided Spartan fans with some hope at the center position by producing on both ends of the floor against Timme and Gonzaga.

Sissoko finished with a team-leading 14 points and nine rebounds against the Bulldogs. He was an efficient four-of-five from the floor and got to the free throw line 11 times. Sissoko played a career-high 25 minutes before fouling out late in the game.

It was Sissoko’s most impressive effort to date. He made himself known throughout the first half, scoring 10 of his points in the first 20 minutes. Meanwhile, Timme was limited to eight points and zero free-throw attempts in the first half.

The second half is where things began to unravel. Sissoko, among other Spartans, got into foul trouble. Michigan State was forced to go small, and Timme was much more productive. Timme scored 14 points in the second half on 71 percent shooting.

The key for Sissoko is maintaining that production over multiple halves, and then multiple games.

“You really enjoy when a kid works his tail off, pays his dues, goes through the process and then has some success,” Izzo said. “Now the issue will be, can he duplicate that? Can he come back and have another game, figure out how to stay out of a little bit of foul trouble?”

Michigan State will have to be especially firm on the glass against Kentucky. Izzo called the Wildcats “the best rebounding team in the world,” and they’re led by the long, physical six-foot-nine center.

“[Tshiebwe] averaged 6.2 offensive rebounds a game last year,” Izzo said. “I mean, that’s unbelievable. And because of that, he scores a lot of his points that way. So they don’t go to him like Gonzaga went to [Timme], at least they haven’t. Maybe they will this year because he’s been in the program a little longer, we just haven’t seen that because he hasn’t played.”

Should Sissoko get in foul trouble against the Kentucky big man, Izzo knows he will have to rely on freshman centers Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper.

“We’re definitely going to have to play all three of our bigs because we’re going to have to bring them in there a little bit more,” Izzo said. “There was a reason Carson didn’t play [against Gonzaga], but at the same time, this game has a lot more length and a lot more girth than the last one we played. So it is great for Jaxon. He’s going to see what it’s like to play against those kinds of people.”

Kohler finished with zero points, two rebounds and two fouls in 11 minutes against Gonzaga. Despite his struggles, Izzo said the game was a valuable learning experience for Kohler.

“It wasn’t like we felt he was a fish out of water,” Izzo said of Kohler. “Timme’s very good at how he posts up, I’ll just say. That can help Jaxon learn in one way, but help figure out how you have to defend in the other.

“One thing about Jaxon, he’s a smart kid and we need to get him the ball a little bit more, too, to help us make up for what his strengths are and what his weaknesses are. But the last two and a half weeks, we’ve been really excited about his progress. He’s running the floor better, he’s doing some things better. It’s just so hard to judge him. When you go back and look at everybody, from Draymond [Green], to Xavier [Tillman], to [Matt] Costello, those guys played seconds in games early. Because we need him, it’s unfair to judge him because I can only judge him on the practices. I can’t judge him against arguably the best center in college basketball. And what I’ve seen in practice and what he’s done, we’re really excited about him. Seriously, really excited. He’s been a lot better the last couple of weeks.”

Izzo is looking for another high-intensity, physical performance out of his team on Tuesday. Rebounding will be key, he said, not only in this game, but for the remainder of the season. It has been a point of emphasis in practice this week for the entire team.

“When you play a team that's such a good rebounding team, it's hard not to be physical in practice,” Izzo said. “We’re going to have to be physical, we’re going to have to cut out, and to do that, you have to do it in practice some.

“I've always erred on the side of 'let's compete.' If we run out of gas, we run out of gas. People do it a different way. But if we compete like we did in that game [against Gonzaga], we’ll be fine.”