When Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Ben Howland watched his team defeat Missouri for the second time in the 2019-2020 season last February, he left Columbia impressed with the talent the Tigers had returning in a year. The sixth-year coach even went as far to predict Missouri would be a tournament team one calendar year later.
As MSU (6-4, 1-1 SEC) prepares to face the Tigers (7-1, 1-1) at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Humphrey Coliseum, Howland’s prediction looks pretty accurate. Missouri enters the matchup with impressive victories against Oregon, Arkansas and Illinois. The Tigers’ lone loss came against Southeastern Conference preseason favorite Tennessee last week, but excluding that, they’ve been deadly.
“I think they play very good defense,” Howland said. “They are one of the better defensive teams in our league and they really do a good job in their man defense. They will isolate ball screens and switch some ball screens. They really get out and deny things. When you penetrate everybody is collapsing and forcing you to kick it back out.”
Missouri has four players averaging double figures, including Xavier Pinson (15 points per game), Mark Smith (12.5 ppg), Dru Smith (11.4 ppg) and Jeremiah Tilmon (10.4 ppg)
“I think they are executing well, offensively,” Howland said. “They push the ball hard in transition on missed or made shots. You are going to see them try to push it very hard as it was (when we played) Kentucky and with Georgia. So we got to do a good job of transition defense with these guys, as well.”
The Bulldogs are on a three-game winning streak against Missouri, sweeping the season series a season ago with a four-point win on the road and a 27-point win at Humphrey Coliseum. MSU has dominated the series in recent memory, winning eight of the last nine games against the Tigers.
Smith hoping to “slow down” in the post
In MSU’s eight nonconference games, forward Tolu Smith was a dominating presence in the post, averaging more than 13 points per game in addition to around eight boards a night.
The Western Kentucky transfer hasn’t had the same success in conference play thus far.
“He just needs to slow down in the post,” Howland said. “Sometimes the pace is going too fast and he’s got to slow down and get settled. That comes with experience and players are bigger and stronger.”
The 6-foot-10 forward scored seven points against both Georgia and Kentucky, with the sophomore converting just 2 of 11 shots in MSU’s double-overtime loss to the Wildcats Saturday.
“He got in a lot of film work (Sunday) and came in and did some extra work this morning for an hour,” Howland said. “He’s got a great attitude, a great work ethic. He is going to keep getting better and he is leading the league in rebounding as of today.
“Offensively, he just has to focus on his post game. Every kid wants to shoot and wants to work on facing up and shooting 3’s. That’s been his focus outside of practice and he’s got to focus on being able to use his (frame) to score on people with his back to the basket. That is something we worked on today.”
First NET rankings revealed
The NCAA revealed its first NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings of the season Monday, with MSU sitting at 113 nationally. Meanwhile, Missouri sits at 10th. Obviously, a quadrant one victory win would do wonders for the Bulldogs’ NCAA tournament resume. According to the NCAA, NET rankings are a tool used by the NCAA tournament selection committee that ranks all 357 Division I teams based on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin (capping at 10 points per game), and net offensive and defensive efficiency.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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