STARKVILLE — On Saturday, Mississippi State senior guard I.J. Ready will take the court at Humphrey Coliseum for the final time. Before the game, his parents and his brother will join him — he hopes his grandparents and an uncle can make it to Starkville, too — for a pregame ceremony remembering his career in its final days.
It will also be the final appearance at The Hump for MSU basketball’s favorite infant, Malaki Ready.
Eleven months to the day after his birth, Malaki will join his father I.J. on his Senior Day, the final home game for MSU’s only upperclassman. MSU will try to break a seven-game losing streak as it hosts LSU in the regular season finale (5 p.m., SEC Network).
“He’s a great dad,” Howland said. “It’s been impressive to see what a good father he is, how much he loves his son and all the time and effort he spends to take care of him. They have a great family, both he and (Roshunda Johnson, Malaki’s mother and a junior guard on MSU’s women’s basketball team) are wonderful parents. To be able to juggle that with their basketball careers and going to school is impressive for both of them.”
Ready and Johnson’s juggling of those duties have often included intersecting them — not that anyone in either the men’s or women’s basketball programs mind. Most people in both programs have a story of Malaki sitting in their office or walking through the locker room, all of them told gleefully.
“All the guys love Malaki. He’s very comfortable going to other people. All the guys hold him and play with him,” Howland said. “He’s a cute little boy that gets an incredible amount of love and attention.”
The secret to taking over two programs simultaneously?
“He don’t cry,” Ready said. “He’s pretty spoiled, I let him do whatever he wants. He’s always being picked up.”
Howland, having two children of his own, seems to have taken as much enjoyment in watch Ready parent as he has watching him play basketball.
“His maturity, it’s really fun for me to watch how much he’s matured as a person to now being responsible for someone else’s life,” Howland said. “He gets that, how important it is to be a parent.”
Ready values that kind of praise from Howland more than any he has received on the court.
“That’s my No. 1 priority. I want to be a great father before anything,” Ready said. “A father can just be there; I want to make an impact.”
He makes that impact however he can, often in spontaneous fashion.
“As long as he’s having fun, whatever,” Ready said. “I like to rough him up a little bit: he’ll get up on the bed and like for me to throw him around a little bit, he thinks that’s funny. I’ll always give him a basketball.”
Ready’s impact on MSU basketball is already apparent, averaging eight points, just under three rebounds and over four assist per game in a senior season that has been harmed by injury, but his biggest impact may manifest itself in years to come. As the only upperclassman on the roster, Ready has served as the primary leader for the group of players expected to elevate MSU basketball.
“He’s a very smart, intelligent player he really did everything he could to help this team win. He really has had a great attitude and been a great role model and example for our younger kids.
Howland added Ready deserves, “a lot,” of credit for whatever success MSU has in the future.
As for the present, Ready said he has been actively trying to avoid thinking about Senior Day. He has not thought about experiencing Senior Day with Malaki at his side, “but I’m ready to experience it.”
Will Malaki have his own Senior Day at Mississippi State in a couple of decades? Howland said he won’t be coaching when Malaki’s time to play college basketball comes; as for Ready, he’s certainly open to Malaki using his lineage to get there.
“I want him to go wherever he wants to go. He’s got it in him,” Ready said. “He might want to be President someday.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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