LOUISVILLE — The Kentucky women’s basketball players have little man’s syndrome.For 48 hours they watched tape of a bigger, stronger, more physical Michigan State team. The headlines warned of a potential roadblock in UK’s magical season run.But height is only a number to the Kentucky women’s basketball team. What it lacks in size, it makes up for with speed, defense, toughness and heart. The diminutive Cats (27-7) out-powered the super-sized Spartans at Freedom Hall on Monday, defeating fifth-seeded Michigan State 70-52 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The second win in two days sends the Cats to their first regional semifinals since 1982.UK will play the winner of UCLA-Nebraska in Kansas City on Sunday at a time still to be determined.”We’ve got a lot of heart, a lot of fight,” said freshman guard A’dia Mathies, who finished with eight points, six rebounds and five assists, a pedestrian performance by her standards. “We really don’t care how much smaller we are than anybody. We just go out there and play.”Nine Spartans stood 6-foot-1 or taller, including 6-9 senior center Allyssa DeHaan, the tallest player in Michigan State history. UK, meanwhile, sent just three players to the floor Thursday night that stood taller than 6-feet.It hardly mattered.Kentucky employed its season-long winning formula of defense and speed, forcing 18 MSU turnovers that led to 22 points and 12 fast-break points, in the convincing victory over Sparty.”We knew that we could get up and down with them and out-run them,” said senior forward Amani Franklin, who finished with eight points and seven rebounds. “That caused a lot of problems for them. We just knew our quickness would be real hard on them.”What Michigan State didn’t know is that it would be pushed around inside. Despite their lack of height, the Cats scored 18 more points in the paint and out-rebounded the Spartans 40-37. “It’s just physical,” Franklin said. “We had to be physical back.”DeHaan, who UK had to hear about for two straight days, was held to eight points and five rebounds. She hit just 3-of-9 shots and turned it over four times.When UK wasn’t forcing turnovers and running in transition, it was isolating 6-1 forward Victoria Dunlap on the perimeter with DeHaan. Dunlap continually drew the senior Spartan out of the paint and blew by her for easy layups.”That was the plan,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “I thought she could get around them some if they came out and guarded her. I thought they came out just enough at times. (Dunlap) made some pretty good reads. I thought she did a much better playing against size than she has at any other point.”Dunlap was one of the players that suffered the most against size earlier in the year. In two of the three games against KeKe Carrier and Auburn, Dunlap was held to her only single-digit outings of the year. In the games again Tennessee, one of the tallest teams in the nation, she shot a combined 15-of-40 from the field.Against Michigan State, she scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds. The reigning SEC Player of the Year said she learned a great deal from her struggles against the trees of Tennessee and Auburn.”The coaches really put in my mind today that I should try to go around the post players and not through them because in the past games I’ve tried to just post up and try to turn around and shoot a jumper,” Dunlap said. “Coach talked a lot about being aggressive on the outside, making a move and going around them and making layups.”She attacked the rim so aggressively and played with such an edge that some of the MSU players said they felt as if she was 6-8. “I’ve always played like that — just play taller than I am,” Dunlap said. “I think that’s one thing coach has looked at me as, as playing taller than my size.”Funny what cheesecake can do. Dunlap woke up feeling ill Monday morning from what Mitchell guessed as three too many cheesecakes at the team dinner the night before. An IV had to be hooked up to Dunlap just for her to play against Michigan State. “What a performance by somebody that had cheesecake sickness,” Mitchell said. Now it’s on to Kansas City for the scrappy Cats, a destination few envisioned at the beginning of the season. Mitchell was asked postgame how far away the team was to a Sweet 16 when he took over the program three years ago.”We weren’t close to the Sweet 16,” Mitchell said ingenuously.Now, on the backbone of a heart-filled, lightning-quick, up-tempo team, Mitchell’s team is not only making history, it’s on the verge of accomplishing goals no other UK Hoops team has every conquered.Although there’s a likely date with No. 1 seed and one-loss Nebraska ahead, Monday’s riveting victory in front of a pro-UK crowd isn’t a time to get complacent.”I think the danger for us right now is to feel like the Sweet 16 is a place of arrival,” Mitchell said. “We need to resist that as much as we can. This team has a good chance to advance to the next round and that’s all we need to focus about.””There have been a lot of milestones with this team. There have been a lot of points during the season where we could have stopped and smelled the roses. To their credit, they have not done that. I don’t expect them to now, but we will fight like crazy to make them understand they have a wonderful shot – no matter who they have next Sunday – they have a great, great shot to advance.”No need to worry with this team. With the mental edge — the little man’s syndrome, if you will — they’ve shown all season, there’s no reason to expect a letdown now.”We can’t just settle for where we’ve gone,” Dunlap said. “I know people are going to tell you we’ve had a great season even if we go in there and lose. We can’t think that way. We have to go in there and think we’re going to win.”