STARKVILLE — A key component of Mississippi State’s offseason was creating a more well-rounded offense to ease some of the scoring burden from Josh Hubbard after his sensational freshman campaign.
The Bulldogs added proven outside shooters in the transfer portal, including Claudell Harris from Boston College, Riley Kugel from Florida and RJ Melendez from Georgia. But as No. 22 MSU (17-7, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) continues to merely tread water in an extremely deep and talented conference, Hubbard has still been forced to shoulder the load offensively, at least in the backcourt.
Hubbard is averaging 17.7 points per game in SEC play, a slight decrease from his production last year. The only other Bulldog averaging double-digit scoring in conference games is KeShawn Murphy, a returning big man who has mostly played as a center in smaller lineups.
“We have as a team, and certainly some individuals, not shooting the ball as well as they’re capable or as well as they have in prior stretches of the season,” head coach Chris Jans said. “We’ve given up a little bit of our girth and our size to be able to score better, and when that scoring is not happening, it compounds because we’re not as good defensively as we’ve been in years past. We can’t rely on turning defense into offense like we’ve done in the past.”
Just once in the last four games has any of Harris, Kugel and Melendez cracked double figures, when Kugel scored 10 points in last Saturday’s win at Georgia. Melendez has played well on the defensive end, but he is averaging just 3.2 points over his last five games, a far cry from the 14 he averaged over the previous five.
Hubbard and Murphy combined for 40 points in a 27-point home loss to Missouri on Feb. 1, with the rest of the team combining for 21. Tuesday night’s loss to Florida was a similar story — Hubbard and Murphy scored a combined 37 points, and no other MSU player had more than Kugel’s seven.
“It gets in your head a little bit. I can see it in their body language,” Jans said. “We had some looks that just didn’t go down for us. It became frustrating for everybody in the building. Certainly our fan base can see it. Our players can see it. Our job is to instill confidence in them and to have short memories, and help them try to get even better looks on every possession.”
The Bulldogs are not the same team defensively that they were in Jans’ first two seasons leading the program, and they were counting on their newcomers to make up for that deficiency on offense. During the Gators’ 17-0 run to start the second half Tuesday, MSU turned the ball over six times, leading to easy run-outs for Florida.
“Unfortunately, this team, when things aren’t going well offensively, it affects other areas of our game,” Jans said. “In a league like the SEC, particularly this year, you’re going to have stretches where you have some costly turnovers, some poor shooting, some frustration. You have to sprint back and build your defense and rely on that. We’ve had times where that wasn’t the case, and it’s proved costly for us.”
Scouting Ole Miss
The Bulldogs complete the home-and-home rivalry series Saturday evening against the rival Rebels (19-6, 8-4) in Oxford after defeating Ole Miss in overtime at Humphrey Coliseum last month. Since that game, the No. 19 Rebels have knocked off Kentucky at home, and they most recently survived a scare on the road Wednesday night against last-place South Carolina.
Sean Pedulla leads Ole Miss in scoring with 14.6 points per game, but the Rebels have arguably the SEC’s most balanced offensive attack, with five players in double figures and big man Malik Dia at 9.9 points on average. All five starters can shoot from outside, as can sixth man Jaemyn Brakefield.
“They’re better than they were the last time we played against them,” Jans said. “We know we’re going to go into a raucous environment, and I’m excited for that opportunity. I’m excited for our team to be able to play in this game.”
Ole Miss takes care of the basketball better than any team in the SEC, committing just 8.8 turnovers per game. The Rebels also force 14.9 turnovers per game, more than any team in the conference except Vanderbilt.
MSU is 3-2 in SEC road games this year and just 2-4 at home. It’s a far cry from the Bulldogs’ splits last year, when they were 6-3 on their home floor and 2-7 in conference games on the road.
“We’ve had a lot of road success,” Jans said. “We’ve had a lot of success away from home this year, probably more than we’ve had at home. We don’t like the fact that our home record in the league is not better than it is, but it should give us great confidence in preparing to go play an SEC road game.”
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