For a Mississippi State basketball team that has lost four straight games and six of its past seven, playing the same team two times in three days probably isn’t a recipe for success.
So it’s a good thing for the Bulldogs that the opponent they’ll see twice in quick succession is Missouri.
Mississippi State (14-11, 5-7 Southeastern Conference) faces the Tigers (10-15, 4-8 SEC) at 6 p.m. Friday in Starkville and again at 7 p.m. Sunday in Columbia, Missouri. For an MSU team rapidly falling out of the NCAA tournament picture, winning both games is practically paramount if the Bulldogs hope to return to the Big Dance for the first time since 2019.
After Wednesday’s loss at No. 25 Alabama, that seems unlikely. Before that game, Mississippi State was already on the wrong side of the bubble, not even among the First Four Out according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Then MSU blew a seven-point lead, lost 80-75 and fell to just 2-8 in Quadrant 1 games.
Neither contest with Missouri, the No. 146 team in the NCAA’s NET rankings, is currently Quad 1 or even Quad 2. Sunday’s game could move into the second category should Mississippi State lose Friday, but if that were to happen, NET rankings wouldn’t mean all that much at that point.
That’s because Missouri is the second-worst team in the SEC by KenPom.com and NET, ahead of only Georgia. The Tigers are 12th in the conference standings with their 4-8 record, ahead of only Ole Miss (3-10) and UGA (1-12).
MU is not particularly strong on offense or defense, checking in with the No. 136 and No. 159 national ranks, respectively. The Tigers are one of the country’s 15 worst 3-point shooting teams at just 28.6 percent while allowing opponents to shoot a strong 36 percent from beyond the arc.
If that wasn’t enough, Missouri has a turnover problem, giving the ball away on 21.3 percent of possessions, which ranks 323rd of 358 Division I teams.
Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said his team spent half an hour of Monday’s practice trying to replicate the Tigers’ attack. Howland noted that with the Bulldogs’ game against Alabama, there was little opportunity for his team to prepare for Missouri on Thursday.
“You can’t do a lot physically because you’re trying to recover from the day before,” he said.
The Tigers have suffered several ugly losses this year, including an 80-66 home defeat at the hands of in-state Summit League foe UMKC. Missouri also lost to Kansas 102-65 and fell 87-43 at Arkansas.
But the Tigers have gotten up for a few big games, taking down Alabama on Jan. 8 in Columbia. Missouri also nearly upset No. 1 Auburn on Jan. 25, coming within a possession of the victory.
MU is led by forward Kobe Brown, who is tops on the team with 12.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. Guard Javon Pickett is the only other player in double digits, averaging 10.0 points per contest.
Brown and Pickett are the only two key returners from the Tigers’ 2021 NCAA tournament team. Missouri was a No. 9 seed but lost in the first round to Oklahoma, 72-68.
Coach Cuonzo Martin’s team lost multiple key players from that roster, including guard Dru Smith and big man Jeremiah Tilmon. Point guard Xavier Pinson transferred to LSU, while shooting guard Mark Smith is now the Big 12’s leading rebounder at Kansas State with 8.5 boards per game.
Mississippi State was originally set to play Missouri on Jan. 5 at Mizzou Arena, but COVID-19 issues with the Tigers postponed the game. The SEC moved the matchup at Humphrey Coliseum up a day from Saturday to Friday and set the rescheduled game for Sunday.
Howland lamented the lack of preparation his team will have as it plays its second and third games in a five-day span.
“You hate to do that, but it is what it is,” he said. “COVID caused this, and we had no control over it. We would have rather played the game as it was scheduled, but they had issues, and so we had to make adjustments in our schedules.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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