STARKVILLE – The injury curse has hit Rick Ray’s program again.
The only freshman the Mississippi State head coach brought in after last season’s 10-22 campaign in the position that needed a major overhaul is out for at least a month. IJ Ready severely strained his hamstring in the second half in the 78-55 victory over Kennesaw State Thursday.
Ready needed to be helped into the training room after suffering an injury with 5 minutes and 27 seconds remaining in the contest. Ready appeared to injury his leg or ankle after delivering a lead pass for a fast break dunk to junior forward Roquez Johnson to put MSU ahead 65-52.
After being evaluated by team trainers and medical staff, Ready got some good news that the hamstring wasn’t torn and he should be able to return to the team in the second semester when Southeastern Conference play begins.
One of the two positions on the MSU roster that could ill afford to deal with injury concerns was point guard after MSU finished near the bottom in the country last season in assist-to-turnover ratio.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate that IJ is out,” Ray said Monday in a media teleconference. “You always have to careful with hamstrings. He could be out from anywhere between 2-4 weeks. We’ll make sure we’ll err on the side of caution with that.”
Ray said MSU (2-0) will start junior Trivante Bloodman, who started every game in his first season with the Bulldogs last year. The 6-foot point guard averaged 6.1 points, 2.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 3.3 rebounds. Bloodman was supposed to be the perfect energy guy of the bench but will now have to start on a team that will have just eight active players beginning when Mississippi Valley State (1-2) comes to Humphrey Coliseum tonight for a 7 p.m. tipoff.
“We really want to avoid moving (Craig Sword) over to that point guard spot, but if Jacoby (Davis) is not able to handle those (backup) things, then we’ll have to slide (Sword) over there to be our third option at the point guard,” Ray said.
Davis is still trying to work through a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered before the 2012-13 season after he was recruited by Ray’s staff through the St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wis.
Davis checked into the game last Thursday and played the final two minutes and earned a assist in garbage time of the Bulldogs blowout victory over Kennesaw State. Davis returned to practice last year in January but was cleared for games this summer after he and Dre Applewhite, late signees by Ray’s staff, both suffered season-ending injuries before the 2012-13 season even began.
“With the way Jacoby has been practicing and they way he’s knee has been reacting to that 5-on-5 contact practice, he should be able to fulfill that role,” Ray said.
MVSU enters the matchup having played a difficult schedule in the early part of the season. MVSU fell at Oklahoma State and Texas A&M before bouncing back with a 108-48 win against Champions Baptist. Five MVSU players scored in double-figures in the victory.
“They’re a quality opponent that’s going to do a good job of penetrating the paint and drawing fouls,” Ray said. “We’ve got to do a good job of keeping those guys from dribble penetration into the paint. Most importantly we’ve got to not foul.”
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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