STARKVILLE — D.J. Jeffries tried to give it a go Saturday against Arkansas, but his knee simply would not let him.
Mississippi State’s fifth-year senior forward had missed the Bulldogs’ previous two games, wins against Georgia and Missouri, after banging up his knee on Feb. 3 at Alabama. He returned to the floor after the first television timeout against the Razorbacks, but after playing roughly three and a half minutes and not registering any statistics, Jeffries told head coach Chris Jans that he still was not up to competing and sat out the rest of the game.
Sophomore guard Shawn Jones Jr. has started the last three games in Jeffries’ place and is beginning to settle into his new role. Jones had averaged between 17 and 18 minutes per game in Southeastern Conference play prior to Jeffries’ injury, but is now called upon to defend some of the SEC’s best scorers and rebounders, almost as a bridge between MSU’s smaller guards and defensive stalwart forward Cameron Matthews.
“He’s consistently shielding his man from getting offensive rebounds,” Jans said. “With Shawn, just driving in that lane and playing off two feet and making others better and understanding that if he doesn’t have a clear path to the goal, there’s other people who are open. … He’s doing much better when it comes to that. Before, he kind of had a one-track mind when he drove the ball, he was trying to score each and every opportunity, and he’s really improved.”
The Bulldogs (17-8, 6-6 SEC) pulled ahead in the final minute to defeat Arkansas and move back to the right side of the bubble for the time being, thanks in large part to their success at Humphrey Coliseum. Only Alabama has beaten MSU in Starkville during conference play, and the Bulldogs have a pair of top-10 wins at home over Tennessee and Auburn.
Josh Hubbard led MSU with 19 points in Saturday’s win and was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season, matching Jamont Gordon for the most such honors in program history.
According to data from Ken Pomeroy, the Bulldogs have the ninth-strongest home court advantage in all of men’s college basketball and the best in the SEC. MSU has sold out four of its last five home games and are nearing another sellout for Wednesday night’s rivalry game against Ole Miss after just three home sellouts last year in Jans’ first season leading the program.
“(The crowd) certainly helped us down the stretch against Arkansas. The place got really loud the last few defensive possessions,” Jans said. “We must play better at home in terms of point differential, maybe some efficiency metrics that are out there. Part of that probably is because we’ve stunk a lot on the road this year, so therefore your numbers are a little bit better at home, but don’t get me wrong, our fans have grown and we’re appreciative of it.”
Scouting Ole Miss
The Magnolia State rivals’ first meeting, on Jan. 30 in Oxford, produced one of MSU’s more disappointing losses of the season — the Bulldogs led for most of the first half, then nearly came all the way back from a double-digit deficit in the second half before coming up short, 86-82.
The Rebels (19-6, 6-6) have played a challenging schedule since then, losing to ranked Auburn, South Carolina and Kentucky teams before scratching out a three-point home win over Missouri on Saturday.
“Certainly you go back and review that game like everybody does, and try to figure out what we can do better in terms of planning and practicing,” Jans said. “We just didn’t defend well enough. We scored enough points to win the game on the road. We just had some breakdowns and we have to try to clean them up.”
Ole Miss shot better than 50 percent in the teams’ first matchup, but MSU’s undoing was its 15 turnovers, which led to 18 Rebels points. The Bulldogs also missed some big free throws down the stretch, including two by Matthews in the closing seconds.
Matthew Murrell and Jaylen Murray are each shooting above 40 percent from 3-point range for the season, helping Ole Miss have the second-highest 3-point percentage in the SEC despite taking the second-fewest shots from behind the arc in the conference. Alan Flanigan and Jaemyn Brakefield can also be volume scorers for the Rebels, and sixth man TJ Caldwell went off for a career-high 18 points in his last game against MSU.
Ole Miss also has a pair of 7-footers in Moussa Cisse and the 7-foot, 5-inch Jamarion Sharp, who are both effective as shot blockers and rebounders even though they do not offer much on the offensive end. Overall, the Rebels are not an outstanding rebounding team — only Missouri is worse in the SEC, and no team in the conference allows more offensive boards than Ole Miss — but they steal the ball 8.4 times per game and get to the free throw line often.
“The rivalry is what it is,” Jans said. “We understand the importance of it, we understand what it means in the state, we understand what it means to our fanbase, and we understand that we lost the first game on the road. That certainly is going to add to what’s going on this week.”
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