Less than four weeks remain until the end of college basketball’s regular season.
And with nine games left to play, Mississippi State feels the urgency growing.
“It’s crunch time,” coach Ben Howland said Tuesday.
The Bulldogs (14-8, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) seem to be on the fringe of the NCAA tournament field as they hope to make the Big Dance for the first time since 2019. The last time MSU won a tournament game was 2008.
Howland’s bunch is determined to change that, but the Bulldogs still have plenty of work to do. Bolstering their NCAA tournament résumé begins at 8 p.m. Wednesday when No. 19 Tennessee (16-6, 7-3 SEC) comes to Humphrey Coliseum.
“They’re one of the hottest teams in our league right now,” Howland said. “We’re going to have to play really well tomorrow to have success.”
The Volunteers have won five straight SEC games, most recently winning 81-57 on Saturday at South Carolina. Tennessee has beaten North Carolina, Arizona, LSU and more this season.
But the Vols will have to take on a Mississippi State team that is 12-1 at home, sending the likes of Arkansas and Alabama packing at the Hump in recent weeks.
Howland stressed the importance of being able to “hold serve at home” Saturday, and the Bulldogs must do so again facing a Tennessee team that — to hear Howland tell it — sounds nearly invincible.
“They’re very tough,” Howland said. “They’re very physical. They defend. They rebound. They do a good job of sharing the ball.”
Tennessee, of course, is beatable. Ask the six teams that have beaten the Vols this season: Villanova, Texas Tech, Alabama, LSU, Kentucky and Texas.
All six of those teams rank in KenPom.com’s top 20, though. Mississippi State, the No. 43 team in the country, does not.
Still, the Bulldogs have hung around with several superior opponents. MSU took its game at Kentucky on Jan. 25 to double overtime before the Wildcats pulled away. On Saturday at Arkansas, MSU shot poorly from the field but did its best before allowing the Razorbacks to record their eighth straight win.
“There’s so many things we could do better, and yet we’re right there with a chance to win on the road, down one with two minutes to go, against a very good, hot team,” Howland said.
Tennessee has been almost as scorching ever since a 28-point loss Jan. 15 at Rupp Arena in Lexington. Since then, the Vols have cruised through their SEC schedule, beating Vanderbilt, LSU, Florida, Texas A&M and South Carolina.
Tennessee scored more than 80 points in each of its past two games, a good sign for a team averaging 74.5 points per contest. The Vols, who are second in the SEC in made 3-pointers, shot 11 of 26 from 3 against the Aggies and 14 of 27 against the Gamecocks.
“They’re really shooting the ball great from 3 and stretching the floor,” Howland said.
But Tennessee has gotten by this season on the strength of the country’s sixth-best defense. After scoring just 50 and 55 points, respectively, against strong defenses in Texas Tech and Arkansas, Mississippi State knows what has to improve.
“We’ve got to do a better job helping each other get open,” Howland said. “We’ve got to be more patient offensively when we are in the halfcourt. We’ve got to get more fast-break opportunities.”
None of that will come easy against a Tennessee defense that thrives on creating turnovers. The Vols force giveaways at a 24.9 percent rate (also sixth in the country), and their steal rate ranks third nationally.
Tennessee has two players — guards Zakai Zeigler and Kennedy Chandler — who rank in the top 25 in the country in steal rate. Zeigler was named the SEC’s freshman of the week Monday, while Chandler averages 13.2 points per game and a team-high 5.0 assists per contest.
Tennessee is a deep team featuring six players scoring at least 7.5 points per game and 10 players averaging 3.4 or more. Guard Santiago Vescovi leads the Vols at 13.9 points per game.
“They’re doing a lot of good things, and they have really talented kids,” Howland said.
So does Mississippi State, and Howland wants to make sure the Bulldogs’ season doesn’t get out of hand. On Monday, the team watched film from Saturday’s game for an hour and 10 minutes, with Howland providing the sense of urgency “in terms of effort, in terms of execution, in terms of desire.”
Why? Because time is running out.
“There’s not a lot of practice time left,” Howland said. “We’ve got to clean up and be very efficient at both ends of the floor in the things we’re doing.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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