STARKVILLE — Mississippi State coach Chris Jans knows what it takes to close out basketball games.
Mental toughness. Confidence. The ability to stick together. Creating — and making — timely shots.
Jans and the Bulldogs appear to have the first three down. But the fourth just hasn’t happened yet.
Game after game, Mississippi State has struggled to knock down important baskets down the stretch. It happened at Georgia. At Auburn. Against Tennessee on Tuesday and Florida on Saturday. All four games resulted in losses.
A scuffling Bulldogs team has problems Jans doesn’t know how to rectify.
“If I knew the quick fix, I would have done it already,” he said Monday. “I’m not sure why. Certainly, that’s my job to know that.”
With a trip to No. 2 Alabama (17-2, 7-0 Southeastern Conference) at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Mississippi State (12-7, 1-6 SEC) doesn’t get a break anytime soon. MSU will proceed to host No. 11 TCU (15-4, 4-3 Big 12) on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, marking a tough week for a team that has lost most of its early-season goodwill.
The Bulldogs could have reclaimed some by beating Florida on Saturday, but falling behind by 16 points in the first half proved too much to overcome.
Mississippi State caught up twice late in the game but couldn’t sustain its production through the final buzzer.
“We played good enough — we certainly had mistakes — to win the game if you could match the execution and intensity in the second half compared to the first half,” Jans said.
To beat Alabama on Wednesday, MSU must put together two of its best halves this season.
The Bulldogs kept things close for 20 minutes in their first matchup with the Crimson Tide, trailing by four at the break before Bama pulled away for a 78-67 win.
Jans had high praise for coach Nate Oats’ team Monday, pointing to the youth of star freshmen Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney. Sophomore center Charles Bediako and freshman guard Jaden Bradley are also key contributors.
“It’s remarkable how good they are considering how young they are,” Jans said. “They certainly have some experienced guys, but some of their best players are new to college basketball.”
Miller averages nearly 20 points per game on 45.7 percent shooting from deep, while junior guard Mark Sears is second on the team in scoring with 14.6 points per game.
Alabama has five players — Miller, Sears, Bradley and guards Nimari Burnett and Jahvon Quinerly — averaging 33.3 percent shooting from 3 or better. Mississippi State has only two: Dashawn Davis and freshman Kimani Hamilton.
“They’ve got a bunch of guys who are shooting the ball at a pretty good clip,” Jans said of the Tide. “Some of the guys who weren’t earlier — guys who maybe you didn’t have to guard on the 3-point line — are now making 3s, which makes it even more difficult to defend them.”
As good as Alabama’s offense is, its defense is even better. KenPom.com ranks the Tide — winners of eight straight games — as the No. 3 team in the nation with the fifth-best defense and the 13th-ranked offense.
“They play with such confidence,” Jans said. “They play to who they are. They know who they are.”
Mississippi State has that confidence, too.
But it’ll take a lot more than that to get the Bulldogs a win Wednesday night.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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