STARKVILLE — With six wins in its past seven games, the Mississippi State men’s basketball team has turned its season around and made its case for the NCAA tournament.
That’s not to say there isn’t more to be done.
The Bulldogs (18-9, 6-8 Southeastern Conference) close their regular season with a four-game stretch that could feature as many as three NET Quadrant 1 contests. Texas A&M is currently a Quad 1 game for MSU but two spots from falling to Quad 2; Vanderbilt could become a Quad 1 win without too much effort.
Tuesday’s game at Missouri (19-8, 7-7 SEC), however, is a safe Quad 1 game for MSU and one the Bulldogs would love to have.
“Missouri is just an opportunity,” Jans said Monday. “It’s a golden opportunity.”
Mississippi State has beaten Missouri once already, taking care of the Tigers by a 63-52 score Feb. 4 in Starkville. In that game, the hot-shooting Tigers went cold, going just 6 of 23 from deep and shooting under 40 percent from the field.
Jans knows that might not be the case again at Mizzou Arena, where Missouri is 14-3 this season.
Add in back-to-back losses to Auburn and Texas A&M, and the Tigers are in dire need of a win.
“They’re gonna be rallying the troops,” Jans said. “They’re sold out. It’s a great home environment. They play better at home.”
Jans credited Missouri’s ability to turn teams over — the Tigers’ steal rate is second in the nation — and its relentless press defense.
For an MSU team that committed 19 turnovers in Saturday’s overtime win at Ole Miss, how to combat that pressure will be critical.
“That’ll be a big deal as the game unfolds, like it was here: When do we push and attack, and when do we beat it and try to get organized in the half court?” Jans said. “But at the end of the day, we’re going to have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball than our last outing, or we’ll be in trouble.”
One area where Mississippi State is poised to take advantage is the offensive glass.
MSU is in the top 25 in offensive rebounding nationally, while Missouri is the worst defensive rebounding team in all of Division I.
But the Bulldogs have been outrebounded lately by both Kentucky and Ole Miss; Jans said his team decreased the number of players it sends after shots on its own end.
There’s temptation to ratchet that number back up against Missouri, but it could bite the Bulldogs.
“They’re one of the top teams in the country in scoring in fastbreak opportunities,” Jans said of Missouri. “That’s the game within the game, and we’re still going back and forth on how many we want to send to the offensive backboards.”
The contest in Columbia will be critical as Mississippi State makes its NCAA tournament push. The Bulldogs are currently projected as a member of the “Last Four In” in several major projections, but they could play their way off the bubble — in their direction — in the season’s final weeks.
“We control our destiny by how we play, by how we prepare,” Jans said. And that’s what I told our team: That’s what you want is to have your own control.”
Mississippi State has that.
Now it’s time to see what the Bulldogs do with it.
MSU and Missouri will tip off at 6 p.m. Tuesday on the SEC Network.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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