Howland: We like playing in Jackson for our fans."
December 20, 2019 | Men's Basketball
by Matt Dunaway, Associate Director/Communications
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State men's basketball looks to head into its holiday break on a winning note as the Bulldogs square off with defending WAC champions New Mexico State on Sunday afternoon in Jackson.
The Bulldogs (8-2) have posted a 3-1 record against defending regular season conference champions from a season ago, most recently a 77-68 win over Radford on Wednesday.
Head coach Ben Howland met with the media prior to Friday's practice.
Sunday's tip time is on-tap for 2 p.m. CT from Mississippi Coliseum. The game will be carried on SEC Network and the Watch ESPN platform.
Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateMBK' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PROMOTIONS/TICKETS/SEC MINI PLANS
The Bulldogs next home game versus Kent State (Dec. 30) is a "$1 General Admission Night" with advanced purchase at www.HailState.com/tickets or in person at the Mississippi State Athletics Ticket Office located on the first floor of the Bryan Building. Discounted pricing will not be available on gamedays at the Humphrey Coliseum Box Office.
Tickets for Mississippi State's annual Jackson contest on Sunday are available for $10, $15 and $25 plus fees via TicketMaster. Fans will have the opportunity to take a photo with "The Golden Egg" leading to the game.
Mississippi State is offering a $60 SEC four-game mini plan at www.HailState.com/tickets which features a trio of Saturday matchups against Georgia (Jan. 18), Tennessee (Feb. 1) and Ole Miss (March 7) in addition to the Alabama (Feb. 25) game.
Mississippi State Men's Basketball Media Session
December 20, 2019
Head Coach Ben Howland
Q: Is Nick Weatherspoon eager to return on Sunday?
BH: "Yeah, he shot great this morning. This morning, we brought everyone in for half an hour of lifting and half an hour of shooting. He shot really well today. I know he's excited, he got to be. To miss 20 games has been a very stiff penalty. He's gotten through it now. It's going to be great for our team. I know Nick will be excited to be out there with his teammates and competing."
Q: What do you like about going to Jackson and playing in a different atmosphere?
BH: "What I like is we're going to get an opportunity to play in front of our fans. It's great for them. We're basically reaching out to them and giving them an opportunity to drive 15-20 minutes versus the two hours here and back fans come up here for games. It's a very small sacrifice on our part."
"It's nice, and it's around Christmas on a Sunday afternoon right after church. I think this will be a good day to do it. We like doing it for our fans. A lot of our players are from Mississippi and have played in that building [Mississippi Coliseum] for the state playoffs and in state championships. Robert [Woodard II], Tyson [Carter] and Nick [Weatherspoon] have all won state championships in that building so it's kind of nostalgic for them as well."
Q: What challenges does New Mexico State present?
BH: "They're a very talented team. They're a team that has very good guard play. They play a very tough schedule. They always play a home-and-home and have forever with the UTEP Miners, who have great basketball history tradition and the University of New Mexico. Right away, they have four very difficult games that they're playing every year with a lot of emotion. Those are rival games."
"The previous two years leading up to this season, they're ranked third in the country in winning percentage behind Gonzaga and Duke. They've won like 86 percent of their games. They have two kids that are both out who started for them a year ago with injuries to their hand. They're right about ready to come back, and they may be back for our game."
Q: How much will it help with Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr. with Nick Weatherspoon coming back?
BH: "I think that it is really going to help us in the long term because both of those guys are counted on heavily moving forward. Getting Nick back allows us now to normalize our minutes. If you go back and look at the previous four seasons, we're not averaging anybody 34 or 35 minutes per game. That's crazy because you have a diminishing return. You get worn down, and you make mistakes. Just taking five minutes less off some of these starter's roles is really going to help them perform better in my opinion. You see that in the NBA. No one is playing 48 minutes per game. If you're playing 38 minutes, that's a lot of minutes in an NBA game. The same thing is true at our level. If you're playing 30 minutes, that's asking a lot. Again, it allows Robert [Woodard II] to move up to the four a little bit some, which against certain teams, it's a better match up for us defensively as well as some obvious offensive advantages for us."
Q: How do you think Abdul Ado has changed his mentality about scoring more points per game?
BH: "I think a lot of it comes from his teammates that have had a lot of confidence in him, and they're finding him. The guys that has done the best job at feeding him of any of our players has been D.J. [Stewart Jr.] D.J. has really been good if you go and look back at who's feeding the post on a lot of his feeds. They're coming from D.J."
"D.J. had three assists in the last game, and I know that two of them for sure were to Abdul for scores. There's no question, he's more aggressive. He's confident, and he's working hard. This morning, he was in here working with Prince [Oduro] and Coach Zeigler working on post moves for half an hour getting up a lot of shots and a lot of reps. It's paying off, maybe those four months off were good for him."
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State men's basketball looks to head into its holiday break on a winning note as the Bulldogs square off with defending WAC champions New Mexico State on Sunday afternoon in Jackson.
The Bulldogs (8-2) have posted a 3-1 record against defending regular season conference champions from a season ago, most recently a 77-68 win over Radford on Wednesday.
Head coach Ben Howland met with the media prior to Friday's practice.
Sunday's tip time is on-tap for 2 p.m. CT from Mississippi Coliseum. The game will be carried on SEC Network and the Watch ESPN platform.
Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the men's basketball program. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets by searching 'HailStateMBK' on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
PROMOTIONS/TICKETS/SEC MINI PLANS
The Bulldogs next home game versus Kent State (Dec. 30) is a "$1 General Admission Night" with advanced purchase at www.HailState.com/tickets or in person at the Mississippi State Athletics Ticket Office located on the first floor of the Bryan Building. Discounted pricing will not be available on gamedays at the Humphrey Coliseum Box Office.
Tickets for Mississippi State's annual Jackson contest on Sunday are available for $10, $15 and $25 plus fees via TicketMaster. Fans will have the opportunity to take a photo with "The Golden Egg" leading to the game.
Mississippi State is offering a $60 SEC four-game mini plan at www.HailState.com/tickets which features a trio of Saturday matchups against Georgia (Jan. 18), Tennessee (Feb. 1) and Ole Miss (March 7) in addition to the Alabama (Feb. 25) game.
Mississippi State Men's Basketball Media Session
December 20, 2019
Head Coach Ben Howland
Q: Is Nick Weatherspoon eager to return on Sunday?
BH: "Yeah, he shot great this morning. This morning, we brought everyone in for half an hour of lifting and half an hour of shooting. He shot really well today. I know he's excited, he got to be. To miss 20 games has been a very stiff penalty. He's gotten through it now. It's going to be great for our team. I know Nick will be excited to be out there with his teammates and competing."
Q: What do you like about going to Jackson and playing in a different atmosphere?
BH: "What I like is we're going to get an opportunity to play in front of our fans. It's great for them. We're basically reaching out to them and giving them an opportunity to drive 15-20 minutes versus the two hours here and back fans come up here for games. It's a very small sacrifice on our part."
"It's nice, and it's around Christmas on a Sunday afternoon right after church. I think this will be a good day to do it. We like doing it for our fans. A lot of our players are from Mississippi and have played in that building [Mississippi Coliseum] for the state playoffs and in state championships. Robert [Woodard II], Tyson [Carter] and Nick [Weatherspoon] have all won state championships in that building so it's kind of nostalgic for them as well."
Q: What challenges does New Mexico State present?
BH: "They're a very talented team. They're a team that has very good guard play. They play a very tough schedule. They always play a home-and-home and have forever with the UTEP Miners, who have great basketball history tradition and the University of New Mexico. Right away, they have four very difficult games that they're playing every year with a lot of emotion. Those are rival games."
"The previous two years leading up to this season, they're ranked third in the country in winning percentage behind Gonzaga and Duke. They've won like 86 percent of their games. They have two kids that are both out who started for them a year ago with injuries to their hand. They're right about ready to come back, and they may be back for our game."
Q: How much will it help with Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr. with Nick Weatherspoon coming back?
BH: "I think that it is really going to help us in the long term because both of those guys are counted on heavily moving forward. Getting Nick back allows us now to normalize our minutes. If you go back and look at the previous four seasons, we're not averaging anybody 34 or 35 minutes per game. That's crazy because you have a diminishing return. You get worn down, and you make mistakes. Just taking five minutes less off some of these starter's roles is really going to help them perform better in my opinion. You see that in the NBA. No one is playing 48 minutes per game. If you're playing 38 minutes, that's a lot of minutes in an NBA game. The same thing is true at our level. If you're playing 30 minutes, that's asking a lot. Again, it allows Robert [Woodard II] to move up to the four a little bit some, which against certain teams, it's a better match up for us defensively as well as some obvious offensive advantages for us."
Q: How do you think Abdul Ado has changed his mentality about scoring more points per game?
BH: "I think a lot of it comes from his teammates that have had a lot of confidence in him, and they're finding him. The guys that has done the best job at feeding him of any of our players has been D.J. [Stewart Jr.] D.J. has really been good if you go and look back at who's feeding the post on a lot of his feeds. They're coming from D.J."
"D.J. had three assists in the last game, and I know that two of them for sure were to Abdul for scores. There's no question, he's more aggressive. He's confident, and he's working hard. This morning, he was in here working with Prince [Oduro] and Coach Zeigler working on post moves for half an hour getting up a lot of shots and a lot of reps. It's paying off, maybe those four months off were good for him."
Players Mentioned
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