Bulldogs iced out of midweek action
While the state of Mississippi continues to go through winter weather issues, Mississippi State basketball is also continuing to be iced out.
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams had their Tuesday games against Auburn and Tennessee respectively postponed. On Thursday, the men’s makeup game at Auburn was again postponed as was the women’s scheduled game against Auburn at Humphrey Coliseum.
The men entered the week at 11-11 and 5-8 in Southeastern Conference play having lost six of the last seven league games including the latest rough loss to Vanderbilt by 21 points. The team was headed to Auburn having gone from a hot start in SEC play to spiraling out of control.
Making matters worse has been the icy conditions in Starkville. The Bulldogs have had limited practice time with school closed and the roadways impassable for many people.
“We were not able to practice (Monday) because of the weather here in Starkville,” Howland said. “It is really unsafe right now to drive around. It was determined by myself along with our administration to make sure no one got hurt. Class is canceled (Monday) as it is (Tuesday) on campus, in person. They do have virtual learning.
“We are going to make it work (Tuesday) to get to practice by getting four-wheel (drive)
vehicles that we have in our program. A couple of coaches have them and a couple of players do.”
MSU’S men are slated to play Ole Miss in Oxford on Saturday at 5 p.m. on the SEC Network in the next scheduled game.
For the women, some of the same issues have plagued them in recent week as they have fallen to 8-6 and 3-5 in league play. Their losses have dropped the Bulldogs out of the top 25 for the first time since 2014 and the team has lost four-straight games.
The team has found it harder than most teams in the conference to even play games over the last month, but to no fault of MSU, the team has played just three games in a month and had nine total games this year postponed or canceled. All of those games weren’t played because the opponent had coronavirus (COVID-19) issues or because of weather.
The last week was supposed to be busy for the Bulldogs. The team was scheduled to play five games in 10 days, but the Ole Miss game was postponed on Sunday, the makeup game against Tennessee was postponed on Tuesday and now the Auburn game has been postponed. Making up multiple games will prove to be difficult due to the fact that next week is the final week of conference play before SEC tournament play begins.
The weather in Starkville and surrounding areas is expected to improve this weekend with the Alabama contest on Sunday likely to go on without any issues. The game will take place at 2 p.m. on SEC Network+.