Howland sees improvement from Bulldogs
It was certainly a tough beginning of the season when the Mississippi State Bulldogs lost on back-to-back nights to Clemson and Liberty on the basketball court.
Since then, the Bulldogs have played much better and have won three-straight games.
MSU head coach Ben Howland can see his team improving on both ends of the floor and it helps having Iverson Molinar back in the lineup after his bout with the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Bulldogs gave up 84 points to Liberty and Howland did not like the way they played defensively against the Flames or Clemson.
“Clemson and Liberty are very good teams, but our defense was a lot to be desired in both of those games,” Howland said. “It definitely hurt us not to have Iverson in either one of those games. We’re just better defensively now and I think they understand that if we don’t play good defense, we’re not going to beat anybody.”
MSU has taken advantage of the comforts of home at the Humphrey Coliseum to defeat Texas State 68-51, North Texas 69-63 and Jackson State 82-59.
Molinar has averaged 18 points per game since his return to the lineup.
“I think we’re better offensively in particular with Iverson back in the lineup,” Howland said. “He’s just a guy who can really score and put the ball in the basket.”
Along with Molinar, D.J. Stewart Jr. adds 16.4 points per outing and Tolu Smith scores 15 points per contest. Smith pulls down 8.4 rebounds per contest.
The Bulldogs will see their biggest test since the Liberty game when they take on Dayton (2-1) in Atlanta today. The game will be televised by ESPNU and the starting time has been adjusted to 2 p.m.
Howland respects the Dayton program under coach Anthony Grant and felt the Flyers could have had a nice finish last season if they had been allowed to complete it.
“More than any team in the country that probably suffered the most from last year’s end of the season because of COVID, it had to be Dayton,” Howland said. “They had an incredible year of 29-2. They were headed toward a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament one year ago.”