NEW ORLEANS — Judging by his comments Wednesday, forward Arnett Moultrie would be fine walking the Mississippi State University men’s basketball team’s game plan to the University of Georgia.
Hint to Georgia coach Mark Fox: MSU is going to try and stuff the basketball in the lane.
“Coach said today in practice earlier we want to dominate inside,” Moultrie said Wednesday at the team’s media availability. “That’s what we need to do (in) this game.”
In a 70-68 overtime loss to Georgia on Feb. 11, which started MSU’s five-game losing streak, both teams scored 26 points in the paint even though MSU has edges in size and experience on the block.
MSU has fed the ball to Moultrie for post touches and alley-oop dunks in its past two victories. It will need production from Moultrie, a 6-foot-11 power forward, 6-10 junior center Renardo Sidney, and veteran forward Wendell Lewis if it wants to beat Georgia at 9 tonight (SEC Network) in its first game of the Southeastern Conference tournament and kick off a long stay in New Orleans.
“We played really well the first game,” Fox said. “I thought we caught them at the right time … but I don’t think that the first game will have a lot to do with motivation for this one because we both understand that it’s win or go home.”
Fox has ranked MSU (21-10, 8-8 SEC) higher than most in the coaches’ poll ballots. He understands the challenge his squad will face trying to beat a team that is fighting to solidify its NCAA tournament résumé.
“They’re a challenging team to prepare for because they’re pretty complete,” Fox said. “They may not be the deepest team in the conference, but they might be the second-most talented team when you just look at starting five versus starting five. They’ve got a terrific team.”
Earlier this week, Moultrie and Dee Bost were named first-team All-SEC by the league coaches, while Rodney Hood made the All-Freshman team. Sixth-seeded MSU was one of four teams (University of Kentucky, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Florida) to have multiple members on the All-SEC first team.
“All three are very deserving,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. “These are three guys that always stay after practice to put in the extra work, and it’s paid off for them.”
Hood, who suffered a deep bone bruise to his left knee late in the first half of a 73-64 loss to No. 1 Kentucky on Feb. 21, participated in a practice and shoot-around Wednesday without a brace protecting his injured knee. Hood’s return helped MSU beat the University of South Carolina and
the University of Arkansas last week to end the regular season.
“We got our confidence back,” Bost said. “We feel we owe Georgia one. They got us on our home court, and we know how important it is to get a win as far as the NCAA tournament is concerned.”
A win would help MSU advance to play Vanderbilt at 9 p.m. Friday (SEC Network). A loss would be the wrong way to end the season, and would send the wrong message to the 12-person NCAA tournament selection committee.
MSU has 16 tournament wins in 13 seasons, the third most behind Kentucky (24) and Florida (19).
Moultrie averages team-bests of 16.1 points per and 10.7 rebounds per game. Bost leads the SEC with 164 assists and 65 steals.
A key will be MSU’s ability to prevent Georgia from making 11 3-pointers like they did in Starkville last month.
“We don’t look at Georgia at all as a team that’s not a very good shooting team,” Stansbury said. ” think they’re a really good shooting basketball team, and that was the difference in our game. They jumped up and made threes and made some tough threes.”
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