Mississippi State, despite having dealt with a spate of injuries, has started the season as well as any fan could have hoped. Georgia Tech cannot say the same.
After handily defeating Georgia Southern in their season opener, the Yellow Jackets edged Howard 88-85 on Nov. 9, then dropped a buy game to UMass-Lowell five days later. Georgia Tech then went on the road for the first time and suffered an 89-54 thumping at the hands of Cincinnati.
The No. 21 Bulldogs (6-0) will make the trip to McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta on Tuesday night to try to add to the Yellow Jackets’ woes. MSU got two more players back from injury in last Friday’s win over Nicholls — forwards Jaquan Scott and KeShawn Murphy — and is now fully healthy with the significant exception of star post player Tolu Smith, who is still on track to return from his foot injury in January.
“It was nice to have KeShawn back in uniform and available,” head coach Chris Jans said Monday. “When you’re coming back from that long of an injury, you’d like as a coach to tell them to ease into it and make the simple plays. It’s easy to say and hard to do at times, but it was good to have him out there. And Jaquan, same thing. It had been a while since he’s had some live game action and he’s still getting comfortable with his injury and trusting it.”
Freshman Josh Hubbard continues to lead the Bulldogs in scoring, averaging 16.2 points per contest despite coming off the bench in all six games so far. At 16-for-39 (41 percent) from 3-point range, he is giving MSU a huge lift in an area where Jans’ team struggled mightily last season.
Jimmy Bell, a post player who transferred in from West Virginia and was thrust into a starting role due to Smith’s injury, has more than proven himself so far in non-conference play, nearly averaging a double-double with 10 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Cameron Matthews, with 2.3 steals per game, is the heartbeat of the Bulldogs’ defense, which is allowing the fewest points per game and lowest opponent field-goal percentage in the Southeastern Conference.
“Obviously you can’t have a better record given how many games we’ve played, but certainly we’ve had our ups and downs in each game,” Jans said. “Like everybody across the country, we’re still trying to find the right rhythm. We’ve got to be more consistent for longer periods of time if we want to be the team that we all want us to be. But so far, so good.”
Georgia Tech (2-2) is led by first-year head coach Damon Stoudamire, and Miles Kelly leads the Yellow Jackets with 18.8 points per game. Two Georgia Tech starters transferred from SEC schools this past offseason in Amaree Abram (Ole Miss) and Kowacie Reeves (Florida), and Jans said his staff plans to review the film from their games against MSU last year.
The Bulldogs have played three neutral-site games already, but Tuesday’s contest — part of the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge — is their first and only true road game in non-conference play. MSU plays Tulane back in Atlanta on Dec. 9, North Texas in Tupelo on Dec. 17 and Rutgers in Newark, N.J. on Dec. 23.
“It’s a big game that way,” Jans said. “To go on an ACC floor on the road and have a chance to beat a team like that is a great opportunity for us, and that’s our mindset. In terms of their particular team, they’ve got some veteran guys, they got quite a few transfers who have been there and done that. From what I can see, they’re still trying to figure each other out and how their parts work together, but they have plenty of talent.”
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