STARKVILLE — Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray insists he isn’t looking forward.
At this point, there’s not much else to do.
MSU (12-17, 5-11 Southeastern Conference) is mathematically alive for a first-round bye in the SEC tournament next week in Nashville, Tennessee. To accomplish that goal, the Bulldogs will have to turn in a flawless final week of the season. That run will start at 8 tonight when MSU takes on Vanderbilt (SEC Network) at Memorial Gym in Nashville.
Despite the significance of playing for a bye in the SEC tournament, Ray admitted he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“I’d be lying to you if I said I’m looking past this game,” Ray said. “We have to have this one because you want to be able to have a bye on that first day. For us to be successful in the SEC tournament setting, we have to be able to avoid playing a lot of days in a row. To do that, we have to focus on Vanderbilt.”
MSU enters the final week of the regular season 12th in the SEC. To get a first-round bye, MSU has to get to No. 10, a spot occupied by Tennessee. To do that, MSU has to win tonight and Saturday at home against Missouri and hope No. 11 South Carolina loses to Arkansas on Thursday night and beats Tennessee on Saturday. Tennessee must finish 0-2 down the stretch.
The Bulldogs beat the Commodores 57-54 on Jan. 17 in Starkville for their first SEC victory. Since then, MSU is 4-11. In three seasons, Ray is 10-41 in league play.
Tonight, MSU will run up against a squad that has won three-straight games and four of its last five.
“I think they are playing very well,” Ray said. “They are an outstanding team shooting the basketball, which means we are going to have to be good on our switches and our closeouts.”
MSU’s defense was in top form the last time the teams met, as the Bulldogs limited the Commodores to 38 percent shooting from the field.
“They are a very good defensive team, and they really challenge you with how hard they play,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. “In that last game, they were more aggressive than we were, played harder. We have to fix that.”
While Ray isn’t giving much thought to MSU’s chances in the SEC tournament, he knows his team gave away precious ground in an 81-68 loss to South Carolina.
“We put ourselves in a difficult situation,” Ray said. “We wanted to avoid playing on day one at the tournament. We thought we could control our destiny, but now we have to have a little help. I thought we played pretty well offensively, but I was disappointed with our effort on the defensive end.”
MSU ended February with a 2-6 record, which dropped Ray to 2-22 in the month for his career. Failing to pass Tennessee or South Carolina in the conference standings would put MSU in the opening day of the SEC tournament for the third time in three years. None of that matters to Ray.
Asked if he was troubled by MSU’s performance down the stretch the past three seasons, Ray said he hasn’t sensed a trend.
“I look at what we’ve done recently, and we’ve lost three games to the three best teams in the SEC,” Ray said. “Those games were at home and we were in those games, but we have been in so many games this year. We just aren’t finishing them.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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