BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In the middle of SEC Media Days in mid-October, Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Ben Howland just wanted some fresh air.
Having already done interviews with ESPN and the SEC Network, he had a 20-minute break before he was scheduled to speak in front of a group of reporters.
So, he invited me to join him on the third-floor balcony of the Grand Bohemian Hotel Mountain Brook in Birmingham, Ala. to talk hoops for a few minutes. It wasn’t exactly the place you’d envision doing an interview with a Power Five basketball coach. Frankly, the balcony setting looked like it was designed by a producer from Alice in Wonderland considering the staggering amount of lavish purple chairs surrounding a fire pit.
Nevertheless, there was a lingering question on my mind.
Howland has already accomplished much in his 37-year coaching career. He led UCLA to three straight Final Fours from 2006-2008. Entering the 2019-2020 season, he needs 21 wins to reach 500 career victories. He’s rebuilt a team that was a Southeastern Conference cellar dweller before he was hired and led the Bulldogs to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 10 years a season ago.
At age 62, Howland knows he’s not getting any younger. So, I was curious: what’s left to accomplish before he hangs up his clipboard, whenever that may be?
He didn’t need any time to reflect on his answer.
“To win it all,” Howland told The Dispatch.
That’s a great sound bite that could be viewed as throwing red meat to a fanbase the Bulldogs would desperately like to grow. More context was needed. Realistically, can you really win a national title at Mississippi State? A place where the best season in program history is a Final Four appearance in the 1995-1996 season?
“Yeah, you can,” Howland said confidently. “If you get to the Final Four, you can do it. And they’ve been to a Final Four before.”
He later explained SEC foes and non-traditional powers such as Auburn last season and South Carolina in the 2016-2017 campaign made Final Four runs. Both of those squads made legitimate runs at a title when no such expectation was bestowed on them a month before the season started.
“So why wouldn’t we shoot for the stars?” he asks.
Now, the fifth-year MSU coach stopped short of guaranteeing a championship for a team that has only a single senior and was picked to finish seventh in the SEC by the league’s coaches.
He admits his team, while talented, is incredibly young and is going to have grow up incredibly fast. Yet Howland is cautiously optimistic about the Bulldogs making back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.
“I think we’re going to be good this year,” Howland said. “Really, the bottom line is you want to be in the upper half of our league because then you have a great shot of getting into the tournament. Based on the last two years, if you’re in the top seven of this league, you’re going to get in.”
A team built around its frontcourt
It seems odd to think the Bulldogs could lose their top two scorers from a year ago (Quinndary Weatherspoon and Lamar Peters) and possibly have a better season.
Undoubtedly, the losses of Weatherspoon and Peters will leave the Bulldogs thin at guard early while Nick Weatherspoon serves his 10-game suspension.
But those around the team will gush about their forward depth for hours if you let them.
All conversations about the Bulldogs start with Reggie Perry, a preseason first-team All-SEC selection. Most of the sets MSU runs will go through the 6-foot-10 sophomore from Thomasville, Georgia. That’s not hard to see considering he’s the first consistent inside scoring threat MSU has had since Gavin Ware in Howland’s first year in Starkville.
Perry explored entering the NBA draft after averaging 9.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in his freshman season. But he knows he needs to become a better 3-point shooter after turning in a 28 percent clip beyond the arc a year ago and could also benefit from another collegiate season.
“I realized that when I get to the NBA, I want to be developed and I want to be able to stick there,” Perry said. “All the players Coach Howland has coached that have gone to the NBA have stuck there. I know I can trust Coach Howland to continue to develop me and get me to the next level.”
Perry should predominantly play the four position, while Columbus native Robert Woodard II will start at the three and will be expected to log about 30 minutes per night. Woodard will be counted on to stretch the floor, as Howland called him one of the team’s better 3-point shooters.
“(My mindset is) a lot different this year,” Woodard said after averaging 5.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per night as a freshman last year. “We lost a lot of key guys. So it’s time to step up and take those roles of the guys that left.”
Forwards Abdul Ado, who averaged 4.7 points per game and 4.5 rebounds per game in 2018-2019, Prince Oduro and KeyShawn Feazell will all be cogs in the rotation.
Feazell has garnered the most attention in the preseason after dropping nearly 30 pounds since the end of last season, allowing him to be more agile. The first look at the slimmed-down Feazell passed the eye test after his 12-point, nine-rebound performance against Division I South Alabama in an exhibition on Oct. 27.
Adjusting to the new 3-point line
If Howland’s theories are correct, this is a good year to build a team around forwards.
The men’s college basketball 3-point line will now be at the international distance of 22 feet and 1¾ inches at the Division I level, moving back approximately 17½ inches from last year.
This could encourage teams to pack in the paint defensively, giving teams with great length and depth a distinct advantage. Howland predicts long range shooting percentages will drop by about 2 percent nationwide.
“It’s significant,” Howland said of the new 3-point line. “I think our 3-point percentage last year was like 35 percent. This year it’ll end up being like 33. You watch.”
Changing of the guard
In Weatherspoon’s absence, senior point guard Tyson Carter will handle point guard duties. Carter is typically more efficient at shooting guard but is more than capable of handling the point. Last season, Carter scored 10.4 points per game and shot 36 percent from long range.
Weatherspoon shouldn’t miss any SEC games, which bodes well for the Bulldogs considering Howland considers him their best defensive guard.
“It really showed last year at the end of the season when he didn’t play the last 10 games of the year,” Howland said. “Especially in the NCAA Tournament. Teams play small ball when you’re trying to match up with them, and he’s our best perimeter defender, no doubt about it.”
But the guard many fans may be raving about come December is freshman Iverson Molinar. Molinar is expected to see plenty of action in the first 10 games and could carve a permanent role into a rotation. Molinar is capable of handling point guard duties in small increments himself, something that’s not lost on Howland.
“I like playing with two point guards,” Howland said. “I played with two point guards a lot in my career as a coach, I think it’s such an advantage. I was just looking at LSU’s guys, both Javonte Smart and Skylar Mays are point guards. When you’re a really good team, you’re playing multiple points.”
Redshirt freshman D.J. Stewart will also see meaningful minutes. Between him and Molinar, Howland thinks it’s likely MSU gets a player on the All-SEC freshman team for the fifth straight season.
The Bulldogs open the regular season at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Florida International at the Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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