Coming off its biggest win of the Chris Jans era against No. 5 Tennessee, Mississippi State’s schedule does not get much easier as Alabama — which actually sits one spot above the Volunteers in the NET rankings at No. 5, despite not being ranked in the AP poll — visits Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday night.
The Crimson Tide (10-5, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) stumbled somewhat against the country’s 12th-hardest non-conference schedule, with three of their losses coming against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time in Purdue, Creighton and Arizona. Alabama also fell to Ohio State in a neutral-site game and to Clemson at home, and Nate Oats’ team’s best non-conference win was a 99-91 shootout against Oregon.
After edging lowly Vanderbilt by three points in their SEC opener, the Crimson Tide outscored South Carolina 44-18 in the second half Tuesday evening to turn a close game into a blowout. The top overall seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament, Alabama won both matchups with the Bulldogs a season ago, though MSU nearly pulled off an upset in Tuscaloosa before coming up short in a 66-63 defeat.
Even after losing Brandon Miller to the NBA, the Crimson Tide are third nationally behind only Arizona and Kentucky with 90.6 points per game. They jack up 3-pointers at a far higher rate than anyone else in the SEC, attempting nearly 30 per contest, and also lead the conference in free throw percentage.
Mark Sears is the SEC’s leading scorer with 20.2 points per game, and he is coming off a 31-point outburst against South Carolina in which he finished 10-for-13 shooting including 6-for-8 from behind the arc. His backcourt partner, graduate transfer Aaron Estrada, scored 17 points against the Gamecocks on 7-for-11 from the floor. Grant Nelson, a transfer from North Dakota State, patrols the post with 12.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Here are three keys to victory for MSU (12-3, 1-1) as the Bulldogs try to sweep the two-game homestand.
Slow and steady wins the race
Against an Alabama team that loves to play fast, MSU will have to limit the Crimson Tide’s possessions by using as much of the shot clock as it can. If, say, Josh Hubbard gets an open look from deep with 15 seconds left to shoot, by all means he should take the shot, but the Bulldogs would do well to string out their possessions.
Don’t get caught out of rotation
With Alabama’s reliance on the 3-pointer, MSU will need to get around screens and make sure to close out on the Crimson Tide’s shooters — particularly Sears, who is 40-for-81 from distance this season. D.J. Jeffries and Cameron Matthews can guard just about any position on the floor and may have to take on smaller players in this game to help out Hubbard, Dashawn Davis and Shakeel Moore.
Feed off the energy of the home crowd
The Hump is expected to be sold out Saturday night for the first time all season. The Bulldogs clearly used the home crowd to their advantage in the win over Tennessee, and the building was as loud as it’s been all year when the MSU defense forced a shot-clock violation without the Volunteers even getting an entry pass in. The crowd will have to fuel the Bulldogs on the defensive end once again for them to slow down Alabama’s offense.
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