Mississippi State started Southeastern Conference play 0-2 last season before winning seven of its next eight games to surge back into the postseason picture. The Bulldogs would like to forget what happened after that, but this year, MSU has once again dug itself a hole in early January.
The Bulldogs’ outstanding defensive numbers in non-conference play were built in large part on the strength of a weak schedule. MSU did beat a Utah team that is currently 25th in the NET rankings, as well as Belmont (No. 58) and South Florida (No. 65). But the Bulldogs also played nine teams ranked below No. 200, which artificially inflated some of their statistics.
Now, head coach Sam Purcell’s team is licking its wounds as each of its first two SEC opponents hung 90-plus points on MSU. Kentucky set a program record last Thursday by making 18 3-pointers, and South Carolina shot 60% in the second half to overcome an early deficit and turn Sunday’s game into a blowout.
The Wildcats and Gamecocks are excellent teams, but there’s more where that came from for the Bulldogs. No. 10 Oklahoma visits Humphrey Coliseum on Thursday night, and MSU still has to play the likes of Tennessee, Texas, LSU and Alabama. A loss to the Sooners would mean an 0-3 start to conference play and raise further questions about the Bulldogs’ ability to reach the NCAA Tournament after narrowly missing out a year ago.
Many of those defensive shortcomings start on the offensive end. MSU’s biggest issue remains ball security, and it reared its ugly head Sunday during South Carolina’s big midgame run. It was a mix of live-ball and dead-ball turnovers that did the Bulldogs in — an errant pass from Terren Ward, a travel by Destiney McPhaul, a three-second violation on Madina Okot. MSU turned the ball over four times in less than two minutes as the Gamecocks surged ahead before halftime.
Point guard Denim DeShields committed three live-ball turnovers in a 50-second span in the third quarter, and she twice tried to force entry passes into tight or nonexistent windows. South Carolina, which runs the fast-break as well as any team in the country, scored 23 points off 20 Bulldogs turnovers in the game.
Even with all of its transfer portal additions, MSU’s regular rotation runs just eight deep, so its options are limited and fatigue could become a factor during the grueling SEC schedule. But the Bulldogs’ margin for error has already shrunk considerably, and Thursday’s game, even against a top-10 team, is almost a must-win. It all starts with cleaning up the turnovers and putting themselves in a better position to contest shots.
— Benjamin Rosenberg
Men’s hoops show promise of new prolific style
As Mississippi State’s first SEC game of the season got underway on Saturday, many watched with anticipation. Could Chris Jans’ team continue to set a new pace with a reworked basketball identity? Could the shooters continue to hit shoots against tougher opposition?
Within just a few minutes, star point guard Josh Hubbard silenced fans’ questions and anxieties with back-to-back three-pointers, and with that, they were off.
It wasn’t much of a dentist’s appointment for State fans watching the Bulldogs dismantle South Carolina. The Bulldogs throttled the Gamecocks from start to finish, taking a 43-18 halftime lead in the eventual 85-50 win. The pace never slowed and there was an answer for every moment of faint hope for the visitors to claw their way back into the game.
The 18-point first half was the fewest allowed in an SEC game under Jans so far, and the 33-point margin at the half was the largest in a conference game for the Bulldogs in 22 years. MSU held the visitors to 29% shooting and just 10% from beyond the arc in what can only be described as a beatdown.
On the scoresheet, MSU was led by 21 points for Hubbard, 17 from Claudell Harris, and 12 each from Keshawn Murphy and Riley Kugel. They shot 56% with evident efficiency all across the floor. It was a prolific, and most importantly, smart offense from the Bulldogs.
It’s not a case of lightning striking twice for the Bulldogs. Wins over Pitt, Memphis and now South Carolina are massive confidence boosters. Hubbard and Murphy both spoke after the game of the feeling that they’re still building toward something, that their best basketball is yet to come, and that feeling is reflected by fans.
The SEC will get more challenging, in fact, it already is, with a visit from No. 6 Kentucky set for primetime at the Hump on Saturday, but this was another show of the offensive potential the Bulldogs have in their new setup.
The excitement around the team is palpable. Over 8,000 showed up for the drubbing before the students had even returned to campus, and the number against Kentucky is likely to be even greater as Jans’ team looks to continue its evolution into a high-flying, high-scoring team against a blue-blood program.
— Colin Damms
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