Ben Howland knows what happened the last time the Southeastern Conference tournament was played at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
Mississippi State won the whole thing.
That was back in 2009 under coach Rick Stansbury as MSU earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It was 10 years before Howland brought the Bulldogs back in 2019 as an at-large selection.
But Howland knows Mississippi State (17-14, 8-10 SEC) has no hope of an at-large bid this time after closing a disappointing regular season with Saturday’s loss at Texas A&M. So it’ll take a repeat performance in the Sunshine State for the Bulldogs to duplicate history.
“I think the only way we get in the NCAA tournament is to win the (SEC) tournament, and that’s very difficult, but it’s been done, can be done,” Howland said Tuesday.
The Bulldogs’ path begins at 5 p.m. Thursday against South Carolina (18-12, 9-9 SEC), a team Mississippi State saw twice in the regular season. MSU dominated Feb. 1 at Humphrey Coliseum in a 78-64 win, but the Gamecocks returned the favor with a 66-56 victory on Feb. 23 in Columbia, South Carolina.
“I thought that in the first game, we really executed well offensively and played pretty good defense,” Howland said. “In the second game, obviously, they played really well.”
Howland chalked up the change to the improvement of two South Carolina veterans: redshirt junior Jermaine Couisnard and senior Keyshawn Bryant. The two combined for 11 points the first time around against the Bulldogs; in the rematch, they scored 36.
In that second game, Mississippi State went 0 for 14 from 3-point range, something South Carolina coach Frank Martin said he knew was “not a strength” for the Bulldogs.
“I thought that we did a pretty good job of defending the 3,” Martin said Monday.
Martin said that was paramount in order to limit MSU guard Iverson Molinar, who was held to 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting inside Colonial Life Arena. Molinar went for 20 points back in Starkville, and Martin knows what kind of challenge the first-team all-SEC guard presents.
“Whether it’s on a neutral court, home court or road court, Iverson Molinar is a problem,” Martin said. “He’s just a big problem for everybody. He’s a really, really good basketball player. … We’ve got to make sure that we once again are able to control Iverson, not let him get crazy with where he gets the ball in the open court.”
Martin also mentioned forwards Garrison Brooks and Tolu Smith when it came to defending the Bulldogs. Smith has scored 18 or more points in each of his past four games.
South Carolina closed the regular season with a loss at Auburn after beating Missouri at home. The Gamecocks were one of five teams to finish at 9-9 in conference play, including wins over LSU, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt (twice).
“It’ll be a heck of a matchup because both teams are going to play incredibly hard,” Howland said. “It’ll be a very physical and hard-fought game.”
On the Gamecocks’ sideline, Martin expects the same. He saw Mississippi State blow out his team five weeks prior in Starkville, with only a late South Carolina run making the final score respectable.
Additionally, MSU sits at No. 48 in the KenPom.com rankings compared to South Carolina’s No. 96 position.
“We’ve got our hands full,” Martin said. “We know it. But you know what? Every team in the SEC is that way. So I don’t care who you draw. Good luck.”
Howland said it’s now “do or die” for Mississippi State with four games to win against tough competition. Should the Bulldogs come out on top Thursday, they will play second-seeded Tennessee at 5 p.m. Friday.
“It’s just one game at a time,” Howland said. “You’ve got to survive the first game to get a chance to play the second game and survive that.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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