STARKVILLE — The Southeastern Conference’s deadliest trio of scorers is coming to Starkville.
After a four-game conference road slate, Mississippi State (11-9, 5-6 SEC) is finally back at Humphrey Coliseum and hopes to fend off LSU (11-6, 6-4) at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The Tigers are led by Cameron Thomas, the highest-scoring freshman guard in the country with 22.3 points per game. SEC all-preseason first team selection Trendon Watford contributes 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest, while Javonte Smart (15.4 points per game) gives the Tigers another perimeter option.
“They’re really good players,” MSU coach Ben Howland said. “Starting with Thomas, he has incredible elevation on his shot. He gets two and a half, three feet in the air every time he shoots a jump shot and is very hard to defend. When he gets hot, he can really get on a roll and we’ve seen it. I remember the first couple of league games I watched them play, I don’t remember who they were playing but he was just killing it. It was just amazing.”
LSU, which had its scheduled contest with Florida postponed last Saturday because of contact tracing within the Florida team, has fallen on hard times, dropping four of its last five games. Like the Bulldogs, they also are in the midst of a four-game road trip with the finale for the purple and gold’s tour of the south coming Wednesday.
“We are going to be really tested because LSU has been off,” Howland said. “They haven’t played in a week. So they’ve been sitting there waiting on us now. That is the process with this COVID and you never know how it is going to work out.”
The Bulldogs, picked 12th in the SEC preseason poll, surprised the rest of the conference by racing out to a 4-2 start to league play, then hit a skid after a 1-4 stretch where the lone win came against a South Carolina team that had played eight less games than MSU because of postponements and cancellations due to COVID-19. Sitting in a tie for seventh in the SEC, MSU is only 1.5 games out of a tie for fourth place in the league, but Howland refuses to look past Wednesday.
“Yeah we talk about the fact if we win tomorrow it would put us even in the SEC at 6-6,” Howland said. “That is what our goal is, is to get back even again. We are trying to keep focus on the now.”
The Bulldogs have committed 20-plus turnovers in back-to-back games, something drawing the ire of Howland so much he forces players to do 10 push ups for every turnover in practice now, but the sixth-year MSU coach said he is seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.
“We talked about this a lot with the turnovers,” he said. “Looking at our last five games, that has been our biggest problem for us, turnovers leading to easy baskets. Provided we can continue to grow and improve in that area, we are going to be fine.”
MSU has a three-headed monster of its own, albeit one that produces less points. D.J. Stewart (17.7 ppg) and Iverson Molinar (16.8 ppg) are both consistent scoring threats for MSU, while Tolu Smith is a distant third at 12.6 ppg.
The next highest-scoring Bulldog is Jalen Johnson (6.2 ppg), who seemingly has been replaced by freshman Derek Fountain in the Bulldogs’ rotation. Howland would enjoy more scoring depth, but relying on those three will have to do for now.
“We have what we have,” Howland said. “I would love to see more balance. I would love to have five guys averaging double figures. That is the ideal way to play, is to have scoring spread out amongst a lot of players. There is no question I would love to have that.”
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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