EAST LANSING - Kalin Lucas had played in this very building during his junior year of high school, when Orchard St. Mary's reached the Final Four. He had a breakaway.

So the then-Michigan State recruit and now-Spartans leader went up for the dunk at the Breslin Center.

Hello, rim.

“Missed the dunk and fell on his back. The student section chanted ‘You can’t dunk at him,’” said current Michigan State junior Mike Kebler, then a player on Okemos. “We won the game by one point going on to the state finals. ...

“He missed that dunk junior year of high school. I still give him heat for that.”

Lucas said missing that dunk didn’t bother him at all. It actually motivated him to play harder. Not much has gone wrong for him since.

He started 17 games as a freshman. Last year, he helped the Spartans to the national title game against North Carolina - the team Michigan State will play Tuesday in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge - and was named the Big Ten Player of the Year.

This year, he needs to be more of a leader, according to Tom Izzo, who was concerned about Lucas' readiness only because last year's successes came with guys like Travis Walton and Goran Suton in leadership roles. Now, it’s up to Lucas and senior Raymar Morgan.

So far, Lucas has responded, averaging a team-high 17.2 points a game.

It’s not the reason he got his new tattoo in the off-season, but the leadership role might explain his attitude toward it.

On his right arm, he inked ‘Attack or Be Killed.’ Although he wouldn’t pin down an exact meaning of the phrase, it could mirror his on-court philosophy. Every Michigan State teammate described Lucas as the most intense player on the team.

“When I’m on the floor, I attack,” Lucas said. “If I don’t come out aggressive, I might be killed. You can go a lot of ways.”

The way Lucas has always gone has been through basketball, a game he started playing because of his father, Kenneth. As a kid, Kalin would tag along when Kenneth would play in rec league basketball games.

He didn’t understand what was going on, but he’d watch his father play. He’d work out on the court with his father.

He’d see the player his father once was - Kalin still says friends and family believe Kenneth is a better shooter than Kalin - and wanted to emulate him.

“My dad been there from day one,” Kalin said. “Be with him all the time. It’s not even just basketball, just about life. He taught me a lot. I talk to him all the time.

“As far as basketball, if it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be playing basketball.”

But he did follow his dad, so he did play basketball. And it led him to college and to the cusp of the NBA.

There was a chance he could have left a season ago. His stock was high. He was viewed as a leader and a good point guard. But he returned to Michigan State.

Now, he’s focused on something else. The Spartans are in Chapel Hill, N.C., facing the team that beat them twice last season, a team that returned all of its players a year ago in hopes of winning a national championship.

If it sounds familiar, it should. That’s what Michigan State has tried to do this year. So when the Spartans heard they’d be playing North Carolina in the challenge, they got excited.

“We all had smiles on our faces,” Lucas said. “Cause they beat us twice but we ain’t going to let them beat us three times. We’re going to go down there and just show what we’re made of.

“Try to redeem ourselves.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.