DETROIT (AP) – Connecticut center Hasheem Thabeet attended the Final Four in San Antonio last year to collect a national defensive player of the year award.

As he accepted the award, Thabeet made a prediction.

“When I was at the podium, I said, ‘See you in Detroit next year,’ ” Thabeet recalled on Friday. “And I made it happen. This time, I’ve got my guys with me.”

This time Thabeet is hoping to take home a bigger prize – UConn’s third national championship trophy.

The junior from Tanzania was co-player of the year and the defensive player of the year in the Big East, widely acknowledged as the mightiest conference in the nation this season. Now he’ll try to dominate an even bigger stage – 72,000-seat Ford Field.

It’s a fitting venue for the 7-foot-3 Thabeet, who is averaging a double-double in this NCAA tournament – 11.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. But it’s his eight blocks in four NCAA games that have the Spartans worried.

“Thabeet is a monster inside,” Michigan State center Goran Suton said.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo joked that the Spartans had trouble watching film of Thabeet.

“Right now we’re adding a screen to our video room so we can get him on the whole thing,” Izzo said. “The one we had, he doesn’t fit.”

Thabeet has come a long way since the first game of his freshman season, when he had 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots against Quinnipiac – but also went 1-for-6 from the floor and 3-for-7 from the line.

“All I could do was run and dunk,” Thabeet said. “I didn’t have that many moves on the block.”

The question is whether he has learned enough moves in three years at Storrs. Opponents try to make Thabeet catch the ball away from the bucket and take their chances.

“The bottom line is, if he gets it behind you, he’s dunking it,” Izzo said. “That’s a given. So that’s the first thing we can’t let him do. Because if he gets behind you, there’s nothing else he’s going to do but dunk it. If he gets it in front of you, he does have some post moves. Not like he’s a stiff in there. You might have a 50-50 chance.”

UConn coach Jim Calhoun bristles over questions about Thabeet’s offensive game.

“I’m very, very defensive about Hasheem and his development,” Calhoun said. “If you had seen him three years ago, he just could barely even make a layup.”

During Friday afternoon’s public practice at Ford Field, Thabeet threw down several rim-rattling dunks. But he drew hoots from Michigan State fans when he pulled up for a 15-foot jumper and missed everything.

Thabeet couldn’t help smiling as the fans razzed him.

His smile can light up an arena. But it can create an impression that Thabeet isn’t tough enough to bang with the other big boys.

Thabeet apparently hasn’t learned how to scowl.

“During practice, when I’m getting a little sterner than I would like to be, he may turn and smile at me,” Calhoun said. “It’s really the inappropriate thing to do. With him, I kind of let it go because … he doesn’t understand the basketball culture. He hasn’t been brought up on being part of a team, going to the locker room. He’s learned a lot of that stuff, but he doesn’t truly understand it all the time, and that’s why we have to get on him.

“It’s not because he’s soft,” Calhoun said. “He’s a very tough kid, maybe the toughest guy on the team, mentally and a lot of different ways.”

He also might be the goofiest. This week, Thabeet caused a minor stir when he posted a message on his Twitter feed that he had failed a drug test and would not go to Detroit.

Thabeet soon revealed it was an April Fool’s joke, to the relief of Huskies fans. The prank raised a few eyebrows, but not inside UConn’s dressing room.

“I’m sure that people who don’t know him, they were freaked out,” UConn forward Gavin Edwards said. “But if you know him, you knew he was joking.”

Calhoun’s reaction?

“For him to do that, I couldn’t even get angry,” Calhoun said. “He’s a hard kid to get very angry at.”

Thabeet smiled – of course – when he was asked about his sunny demeanor.

“I smile in the game and people question if I’m mean enough,” he said. “If you want to find out how mean I am, just try to score on me.”

The Spartans will try. But they’re not sure how to go about it.

In UConn’s 82-75 victory over Missouri in the West regional final last weekend, Thabeet failed to block a shot for the first time in 50 games. But afterward the defeated Tigers said he had taken them out of their comfort zone.

“Especially in that Missouri game, I think they were coming in there and changing their shots up,” Michigan State guard Travis Walton said. “Even if he didn’t block the shot, his presence made you change the shot.

“Even when he isn’t in the game, or even when he’s not around, you still think, is he going to come from behind me and block the shot?” Walton said.

AP-ES-04-03-09 1815EDT

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