It took just 19 minutes for Tolu Smith to lead Mississippi State in both scoring and rebounding in his season debut Sunday against Bethune-Cookman. But the Bulldogs’ star post player, who just returned from an absence of two-plus months due to a foot injury, knows he still has plenty of room to grow.
“He’s a tireless worker and he’s constantly trying to add to his game and prove his range,” MSU head coach Chris Jans said. “One game is too small of a sample size, but he’s just so comfortable out there because of his experience. He showed pretty good patience, for the most part, to wait for the space to be cleared for him to go to work or make the appropriate pass.”
Smith played the best basketball of his collegiate career down the stretch last season, putting up 27 points in the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt and then setting a career high with 28 points in a Southeastern Conference Tournament win over Florida.
His announcement in May that he would return for his final year of eligibility instantly raised expectations for this year’s Bulldogs, and those expectations have mostly been met so far even with their centerpiece out.
Despite a loss to Southern that will be a stain on MSU’s resume all season long, the Bulldogs are 11-2 entering SEC play, and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has them as a No. 10 seed in his latest NCAA Tournament projections. Five SEC teams are currently in the top 25 of the latest NET rankings — MSU is No. 34 — and four are in the AP Top 25.
The Bulldogs travel to South Carolina for their conference opener Saturday, with both teams receiving four votes in the latest AP poll.
“We’ve got some really good teams this year,” Jans said. “The teams that maybe weren’t in the top three or four from last year have closed the gap a little bit and more of them have moved up the chain. There’s just a lot of depth. There’s a lot of teams that have put themselves in a good position heading into SEC play, and even though I’m sitting here talking about the opportunities that are ahead of us, I think everyone’s probably feeling that way.”
Scouting South Carolina
The Gamecocks finished a measly 4-14 in conference play last year but completed the non-conference portion of this season at 12-1, with their only loss coming on the road against in-state rival Clemson — a team that has since risen to No. 16 in the AP rankings.
Lamont Paris is beginning to rebuild a winning program in his second season as South Carolina’s head coach, and before his first year he added Ohio State guard Meechie Johnson in the transfer portal. Johnson now leads the Gamecocks with 17.7 points per game.
B.J. Mack, a graduate transfer from Wofford, averages 14 points per game and is South Carolina’s leading rebounder. Paris also brought in Myles Stute, who started 59 games over the last three years with Vanderbilt and is now averaging 10.6 points per contest for the Gamecocks. South Carolina’s other two starters, Ta’Lon Cooper (Morehead State and Minnesota) and Stephen Clark (The Citadel) also arrived via the portal.
Only MSU has allowed fewer points per game than the Gamecocks among SEC teams, setting up a potential defensive battle Saturday at Colonial Life Arena.
“They’ve added some key pieces to their team through the portal. It seems like they’re meshing very well,” Jans said. “The thing that jumps out to me right away is how well and how many guys can shoot the 3. They have five guys on the floor, for the most part, (who) all shoot the 3 and they shoot it pretty proficiently, so that’s going to spread you out.”
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