SEC Tournament grind begins
What appears to be a wide open Southeastern Conference Men's Tournament begins tonight in Nashville, Tennessee.
The thing that impressed Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans the most in his first year in the league is how competitive all of the teams are despite the circumstances in some cases.
“I've certainly been impressed with the quality of teams and programs,” Jans said on Tuesday during his weekly media session. “One of the things that sticks out the most to me is there is just no give up in anybody. A team can be in the middle of a tough streak, think their confidence would be lower, some guys may be thinking about their own individual future and hurt he productivity of a team but just haven't seen it. Every single night, if you are not ready to go, you are going to get punched in the mouth and I think that's a great testament to the quality of staffs and players that are in this league. They keep grinding and keep competing.”
Ole Miss and South Carolina begin the action today with a 6 p.m. tip at Bridgestone Arena, while LSU and Georgia play 25 minutes after the first game.
Jans' Bulldogs (20-10, 8-9) will take the court in the first game on Thursday at noon against Florida. There will be three more games following MSU that day.
With the arrival of postseason, there are opportunities to advance through the bracket in a neutral setting.
The Bulldogs participated in the Barstool Sports Invitational in Philadelphia, Pa., the Fort Myers Tipoff Regional in Fort Myers, Fla., and the Battle in the
Vault in Lincoln, Neb., during the nonconference portion of the schedule.
Jans believes those experiences should help MSU in the postseason.
“We've had a chance to play in great environments and played in front of thousands of people as the team that didn't have all of the supporters there,” Jans said. “These neutral site games have a different feel to them going on the road. We've played in a handful of neutral site games, but obviously not with the stakes that will be presented on Thursday and hopefully through the weekend. I'm pretty confident in our guys ability to focus on the task at hand, staying in the moment, having some blinders on, if you will, and just compete.”
If the Bulldogs can beat the Gators, it would set up a meeting against No. 1 seed Alabama on Friday.
MSU forward Tolu Smith, who was
voted ALL-SEC first team by the coaches and The Associated Press, said there will be no looking ahead.
“We're focused on one game a a time and make sure we take care of business in the first game,” Smith said. “We can't worry about who is playing who or what's going on with the next game. We've got Florida ahead of us right now and we've got to win.”