Before Cameron Matthews and D.J. Jeffries were sharing the floor for Mississippi State as the lead merchants of Chris Jans’ physical, in-your-face defense, the pair known as “Mook” and “Slime” were dominating some of the best high school competition the Magnolia State had to offer some 120 miles to the northwest.
Matthews and Jeffries play essentially the same position — both are 6-foot-7 forwards who rebound well, play excellent defense are not especially adept as outside shooters — but they learned to play together back at Olive Branch High School, where they led the Conquistadors to their first-ever state championship in 2018, and still enjoy that same chemistry on the court today for the Bulldogs.
“We both know what we’re going to get out of each other,” Jeffries said. “He’s like my brother. I know what I’m going to get out of him; he knows what he’s going to get out of me.”
Jeffries, who is a year older than Matthews, was a program-changing player for Olive Branch and head coach Eric Rombaugh, who said “things went to the next level” when he arrived. Rombaugh said Jeffries was somewhat shy at first, not wanting to take too many shots as a younger player, but by his junior season in 2017-18, Jeffries averaged 20.8 points per game and was a key cog in his team’s state title run.
In the Conquistadors’ MHSAA Class 5A semifinal win over Callaway, Jeffries filled the box score with 20 points, five rebounds and five blocks, then tallied 20 points again in the championship game as Olive Branch beat Forest Hill, 64-44. The Conquistadors won all four of their postseason games that year by at least 15 points.
“That team that year was super determined,” Rombaugh said. “We weren’t going to let anybody get in our way, and as we made it to the state tournament, it was just blowout after blowout. We just imposed our will on people. Once we got down there, (Jeffries and Matthews) really stepped it up. We played great defense and held the other teams to some low scores, and on offense we just made play after play.”
Jeffries was even better as a senior, averaging 23.3 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.6 blocks per contest en route to winning Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year honors. Olive Branch made it back to the state championship game but fell two points short against Center Hill.
Thanks in large part to Jeffries and Matthews, the Conquistadors started to get invited to some major national tournaments as far away as Florida and Massachusetts. At one tournament in Kentucky, several kids in attendance were asking Jeffries for his autograph, a first-time experience for the teenager.
“I was kind of standing there watching it, and his autograph was awful,” Rombaugh said. “He didn’t even understand what he was doing. That night in the hotel room, we practiced his autograph so that the next day we went up there, the kid could understand what it was. That’s just part of the process D.J. went through. Super unassuming and had to learn as he went.”
While Jeffries entered high school on the reserved side, confidence was never an issue for Matthews, who averaged 16.2 points and 14.5 rebounds per game as a senior in 2019-20. Rombaugh said defense has always been a hallmark of Matthews’ game, and he averaged upwards of three blocks per contest in each of his last two years with Olive Branch.
The No. 3 prospect in the state for the class of 2020 chose MSU over the likes of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Ole Miss and Memphis — where Jeffries had enrolled and averaged double-digit scoring as a freshman.
“I talked to (Jeffries) here and there,” Matthews said of the duo’s two years apart while Jeffries was at Memphis. “It’s just that with guys you’ve been on the same team with, you try to steer clear of talking so much basketball. So whenever I talked to him, it was just catching up, seeing how he’s doing and how his family’s doing.”
Jeffries entered the transfer portal following the 2020-21 season, but not before the Olive Branch boys took the court as opponents in the 2021 NIT championship game in Frisco, Texas. Jeffries had 15 points and five blocks to help the Tigers to a 77-64 win over the Bulldogs, but the freshman Matthews, who had never scored more than eight points in a game in college, exploded for 19.
“That was a tough game to watch. It reminded me of some of the practices we had here,” Rombaugh said. “Now that they have the chance to play together (again), seeing the intensity on defense they’re both bringing, how can the other guys on the team not play that hard? It’s just neat seeing them together.”
Family reunion
Now in their third year together in Starkville, Jeffries and Matthews have gone through a coaching transition and helped MSU return to the NCAA Tournament last year. Jeffries started immediately upon transferring, while Matthews remained a part-time starter in Ben Howland’s final season before officially cracking the starting lineup in 2022-23 under Jans.
Matthews said he did not make a pitch for Jeffries to join the Bulldogs when he was in the portal, but the pairing has worked nearly as well in the Southeastern Conference as it did in Olive Branch. Both have found their fit as defensive leaders who can guard just about any position save for true centers, and both frequently find themselves matched up with the other team’s leading scorer.
“(Jeffries) has figured out a style individually for him to play within the framework of what we’re trying to do,” Jans said. “He’s playing right now, for us, how we’ve been envisioning him playing in terms of getting downhill more, not settling for the pull-up, not picking the ball up too early.”
In last week’s upset win over No. 5 Tennessee, Jeffries was all over Dalton Knecht in the first half, holding him to just two points before the Volunteers’ star made adjustments and caught fire in the second half. Both players spent time guarding Alabama’s Mark Sears on Saturday, with Jeffries assigned to him while Matthews was in foul trouble for much of the first half. Sears was limited to five first-half points, but later heated up and finished with a game-high 22.
The former high school teammates provided a highlight-reel moment on Dec. 17 in the Bulldogs’ win over North Texas in Tupelo. Matthews came across the key to block a layup, and Dashawn Davis deflected the rebound straight to Jeffries, who blew by a defender and went coast-to-coast for a nifty finish on the other end.
“(Matthews) has to be that energy warrior and a guy who plays so hard that everybody feels like, ‘Man, I better join in or he might get mad at me,’” Jans said. “We’ve been encouraging him behind the scenes to be more vocal with his teammates, and he’s been doing that.”
Jeffries will be out of eligibility after this season, but Matthews has the option to come back for one more year due to the NCAA’s COVID-19 response. If he does, it will be just the third time in the last nine seasons that the two will not suit up together.
As SEC play rolls along, many of the conference’s best offensive players are sure to have their hands full with Jeffries and Matthews, who have built up such a strong relationship over the years that each is nearly always aware of where the other is on the floor.
“I love all my brothers, all my teammates equally, but it’s a little different when you’ve been on the court with somebody for six, seven years,” Matthews said. “I’m grateful for having the opportunity to play with a great player like D.J. (I’ve been) soaking it all in, trying to pick up small things here and there from D.J. to make myself better and hopefully doing the same for him.”
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