Coming off an emotional rivalry win over Ole Miss in which both head coaches were assessed a technical foul, Mississippi State is back on the road Saturday night as the Bulldogs battle a much-improved LSU team.
The Tigers won the Southeastern Conference as recently as 2019 and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022 under Will Wade, but Wade was fired following that season under a cloud of numerous alleged recruiting violations. New head coach Matt McMahon, dealing with a roster in transition after all 11 returning scholarship players entered the transfer portal, went just 2-16 in SEC play last year.
LSU (14-12, 6-7 SEC) has taken big strides in a positive direction in McMahon’s second season. The Tigers struggled somewhat in non-conference play, taking a bad early loss to Nicholls, but are playing their best basketball of the year right now. A home loss to Georgia on Jan. 24 was less-than-ideal, LSU knocked off then-No. 11 South Carolina on the road last Saturday, coming back from a 16-point second-half deficit for a 64-63 win.
That set the stage for an even more dramatic victory Wednesday night against No. 17 Kentucky. The Tigers trailed by 15 early in the second half but rallied for a win at the buzzer when Jordan Wright collected the rebound after his shot was blocked and dished a pass to Tyrell Ward, who beat the horn with a layup as LSU pulled off a 75-74 triumph.
Jalen Cook leads the Tigers with 15.6 points per game, but has been battling a hamstring injury and missed the last three games — meaning LSU has picked up those two ranked wins without its top scorer. Wright, a grad transfer from Vanderbilt, averages 14.9 points per contest, with 7-footer Will Baker, a grad transfer from Nevada, averaging 12.
Here are three keys to victory for MSU (18-8, 7-6) as the Bulldogs try to extend their winning streak to five and pick up their second road win of the season.
Take care of the basketball
For fear of sounding like a broken record, turnovers have been an issue for MSU in conference play, particularly away from Humphrey Coliseum. The Bulldogs have coughed it up 12.9 times per game overall, and the Tigers are tied for the SEC lead with 8.3 steals per contest. Wright’s 1.8 steals per game are fifth in the conference.
Whoever is handling the ball for the Bulldogs — be it Shakeel Moore, Dashawn Davis or Josh Hubbard — will need to protect it, and Tolu Smith and Jimmy Bell should be getting the ball down on the low block rather than driving in from the top of the key or the corner.
Take the ball away
The only team in the SEC that turns the ball over more often than MSU? That would be the Tigers. The Bulldogs forced 17 turnovers in Wednesday night’s win over the Rebels, including 10 in the second half. MSU can always rely on Cameron Matthews to make hustle plays on the defensive end, but the Bulldogs’ defense is markedly better now that his former high school teammate, D.J. Jeffries, is back from a knee injury. Davis and Moore have also improved on the defensive end over the last few weeks.
Make it count at the free throw line
At this point in the season, it’s unfair to expect MSU’s foul-shooting fortunes to dramatically improve, but for all the opportunities the Bulldogs had at the stripe against Ole Miss, they should have put the game away much sooner than they did. Free throw shooting was not really an issue for MSU until the home loss to Alabama on Jan. 13, but since then, the Bulldogs have regressed to last in the SEC in free throw percentage.
Smith, Matthews and others need to capitalize when they earn those trips to the line, because LSU has proved it is never out of a game with those comeback wins against South Carolina and Kentucky.
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