MSU plays at Georgia to open SEC play
Georgia’s Bulldogs get up and down the basketball court very quickly.
It will be important for the Mississippi State Bulldogs to keep up tonight.
MSU head men’s basketball coach Ben Howland said it will be important to slow down the transition game of Georgia
when the Southeastern Conference schedule begins in Athens. The tip is set for 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.
The Bulldogs of coach Tom Crean are undefeated at this point of the season at 7-0 and the thing that stands out to Howland is their transition game.
“They are pushing the ball on offense both on made and missed shots,”
Howland said. “They come at you so hard and run the floor so hard. (Sahvir) Wheeler is doing an outstanding job at the point for them pushing the ball. We have eight or nine clips of him just going coast to coast, getting the outlet and getting all the way to the basket. He leads our league in assists per game.”
Howland
is impressed that Georgia has “a lot of pieces” and has a sophomore from Belgium in Toumani Camara, who leads the team with 14.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Georgia was able to knock off Cincinnati 8368 earlier this season and that caught Howland’s attention.
“They have great chemistry and great unselfishness,” Howland said. “They played Cincinnati at home a week and a half ago and just demolished them. Cincinnati as we know is a pretty good program, so it’s going to be a very formidable opponent and we’ll have to play really well to have success on the road.”
Although pleased to have success against Cincinnati and other teams in the non-conference portion of the schedule, Crean is not satisfied with his Bulldogs.
To be able to have success against SEC teams, starting with MSU, Crean said Georgia has to be locked in from the opening tip to the final horn.
“There is a ton of room for this team to get better,” Crean said. “Ulti
mately the bottom line is putting 40 minutes together.”
State takes a 5-3 record into league play with losses to Clemson, Liberty and Dayton.
Howland calls the 85-82 double overtime loss at Dayton “disappointing,” but believes his Bulldogs learned from experience.
“If we make our free throws in that game, we win,” Howland said after MSU was 9-of-22 from the line in that game. “Hopefully, we’ve grown from that and when we get into the next tight game, I’m sure we’ll perform better.”
D.J. Stewart Jr. leads MSU in scoring with 18.3 points per game, while Iverson Molinar adds 17.6 points per outing and Tolu Smith contributes 13.9 points per contest.