STARKVILLE – The end is in sight, and that may bring light at the end of the tunnel for Mississippi State’s basketball team.
With a brutal three-game home stretch that included games against Ole Miss, No. 16 Arkansas and No. 1 Kentucky now behind them, the Bulldogs now enter the final week of the regular season at 12-16 overall, a losing regular season assured for the third straight season.
But with the final three games including a trio of teams with losing records, including two that MSU has already beaten, the chance at a strong finish for coach Rick Ray and the Bulldogs is still in play.
Following MSU’s latest loss, though, a 74-56 setback against the top-ranked Wildcats, Ray didn’t much feel like talking about the future.
“It’s so hard to judge what we can do based on tonight because Kentucky’s just so different than everyone else,” said Ray. “Everybody has lost to Kentucky. We just have to pick up the pieces and move on.”
For the Bulldogs, moving on begins Saturday, when MSU will travel to face South Carolina in a 5 p.m. showdown. Like the Bulldogs, the Gamecocks (12-13, 4-11) have struggled much of the season. But unlike MSU, hope remains for the Gamecocks to finish with a winning record in the regular season.
The best MSU can hope for is a 15-16 mark, which would mean three straight wins to end the season. That remains possible as all three remaining opponents for MSU – South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Missouri – are locked in the bottom third of the Southeastern Conference race and the Bulldogs already own victories over the Commodores and Tigers.
For portions of the conference season, like a stretch that saw MSU win four of six games in late January and early February, the Bulldogs looked like an improved team. But then came five losses in the Bulldogs’ next six games, culminating in four consecutive home losses to Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Kentucky.
For Ray, who has said “Anyone can see that we are an improved basketball team,” the final week of the season could provide a springboard that allows MSU to turn the proverbial corner.
Count Kentucky coach John Calipari as one outside observer who respects the job Ray is doing at MSU.
“I’m amazed how hard they play, how much they are in sync with each other,” said Calipari of the Bulldogs. “I think people forget how bad it was there when he took over. He’s doing a great job, he really has them playing hard.”
Of Calipari’s unexpected support, Ray was appreciative.
“I just think he sees a young guy (Ray is 44) trying to do things the right way,” said Ray. “That’s been thrown into a difficult situation. I’d like to think, more so than anything, he likes the way I’ve handled business over here. I think he appreciates that we play hard.”
Playing hard has been a calling card for MSU this year. But, at four games under .500, sloppiness and an inability to score have also been hallmarks for the Bulldogs. MSU ranks 13th out of 14 teams in the Southeastern conference in scoring at just 61 points per game, and the Bulldogs rank No. 325 in Division-I in protecting the basketball, as the Bulldogs’ 15 turnovers per game ranks as the worst average in the SEC.
Still, there’s been hope.
Freshman Oliver Black has emerged as a viable producer of minutes in the post, and freshman Demetrius Houston has used his considerable athleticism to emerge as a candidate for extended playing time down the season’s stretch run.
Of Black, Ray said, “When you are a big man, the no. 1 thing is that you have to work hard, and he does. He is not a finished product, only teams like Kentucky and other bluebloods get finished products as freshmen in the post. But he will be, and I think he’s got a chance to be a good player here.”
Ray was equally as encouraged by Houston’s recent play, as the 6-foot-7 freshman swingman from Montgomery, Alabama scored a career-high eight points against Kentucky.
“The first thing about Demetrius is that he has no fear factor,” said Ray. “If you want to be successful, you can’t be afraid. You can’t coach guys that are scared. The next step for him is to get his skill level up. Everybody can see his raw athleticism, but when he gets that skill up, he’s going to improve a lot.”
n Sword joins 1,000-point club: Though he didn’t seem impressed by the feat, MSU junior guard Craig Sword became the 34th member of MSU’s 1,000-point club on Wednesday night, as his third and fourth points of a 10-point outing broke the threshold, putting him at 1,001 points three years into his MSU career.
Still, Sword wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.
“Maybe another day I will think about it and be happy,” said Sword. “But we lost, that’s really all that matters. I’m not thinking about the points tonight.”
Follow Dispatch Sports Writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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