Men’s Hoops Holds SEC Tournament Media Session
March 10, 2020 | Men's Basketball
by Matt Dunaway, Associate Director/Communications
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland along with SEC award winners Tyson Carter and Reggie Perry met with the media on Tuesday to preview the upcoming SEC Tournament.
Earlier in the day, Perry was a consensus All-SEC First-Team selection by the coaches and media in addition to being named the SEC Co-Player of the Year by the Associated Press. Carter made program history as State's first recipient of the SEC's Sixth-Man of the Year award from the coaches.
The Bulldogs head into the SEC Tournament as the No. 4 seed with the winner capturing the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs earned a double dye and will face either Florida, Georgia or Ole Miss during Friday's quarterfinal round. Tip time is set for 2:30 p.m. CT televised by ESPN.
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.
Mississippi State Men's Basketball Media Session
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Head Coach Ben Howland
Q: How are you and the team preparing for the SEC Tournament not knowing the team that you're going to face at this point?
BH: "Sunday, we had the day off. Yesterday, we went through a bunch of stuff with the five-on-zero, we lifted and we watched film. Today, we're doing shooting with each guy and keeping it really light because we're hopeful that we'll be playing a long time over in Nashville. We're trying to keep ourselves fresh. Tomorrow, we practice here, get on the plane and head up to Nashville. We'll practice up there at Belmont [University] on Thursday. We'll be scouting the Georgia-Ole Miss game on Wednesday night. Then, we'll be scouting Florida and whoever wins that game from Wednesday."
Q: What has Tyson Carter and Reggie Perry meant to this team?
BH: "Starting with Reggie, that's really nice that the AP [Associated Press] honored him with Co-MVP with Mason Jones from Arkansas, who's in the zone and a very fantastic player. I'm just really proud of Reggie who won the Bailey Howell award yesterday. That award is a huge significance to us around here especially because it's named after one of the greatest players in the history of the SEC and the best player to ever come out of Mississippi State for being the best player from the state of Mississippi. Breein Tyree was a terrific competitor for that award because he's a great player too in his own right. I was really proud of Reggie for that. The MVP of the league was just fantastic. He was named All-SEC First Team by the coaches as was Tyson named the [SEC] Sixth Man of the Year. Those are great honors to me because I don't get to vote. It's the fellow coaches in the league that recognize the best players in this conference. I think that says it all. There's a great respect for both of those guys from all the coaches that we've had to coach against and compete against in this league in other programs and other teams."
Q: How difficult do you think it was for Tyson Carter to embrace coming off the bench after he started a lot of games early in the season?
BH: "It really helped us. It changed our whole season when that happened for the better. When you look at his minutes, he's still averaging 27 minutes a game. He's playing starters minute. He's finishing games. The ball is in his hands at the end of the game in many cases at Arkansas, at Florida and at Missouri. He's done a great job at closing out the contest for us. He had a terrific year. When you say sixth man, it's like he's a starter. That's how the other coaches viewed it. We're a good team when we have him coming off the bench for us."
Q: How much are you thinking about bracketology and the projects? What would a run in the SEC Tournament mean to your team?
BH: "We all know what we're playing for. It's no secret. Everybody starts the year wanting to be a participant in the NCAA Tournament. It's right there dangling in front of us now. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to complete the task."
Q: Do you have a feel going into the SEC Tournament of what your team has to do to make it to the NCAAs, or is it more of a win and remove all doubt situation?
BH: "I think you answered it. Win and remove all doubt … The main thing is just one game at a time. We have to win on Friday. Whoever we play, we have to beat. We better bring the same focus, concentration, and effort that we had for the Ole Miss game. If we do that, we're going to be hard for anybody to beat no matter who we play."
Guard Tyson Carter
Q: How did you adjust to coming off the bench throughout the season?
TC: "I kind of didn't like it at first because I had been a starter. I accepted it because I was just trying to do what's best for the team because I knew we needed a spark. It wasn't too big of an adjustment for me because I had been coming off the bench in the past."
Q: How much did you have to work to be able to fill in all the roles that you've filled for this team throughout this season?
TC: "Going into the season, I wanted to look at myself as the leader of the team. The leader of the team does whatever it takes for his team to win because that's the most important thing is the team winning. I just tried to fill in any role that I could just to make the team win. If that was playing point, playing at the two or coming off the bench, anything."
Forward Reggie Perry
Q: What does it mean to you to be named the SEC Co-Player of the Year?
RP: "It means a lot because I feel like I put in a lot of work. It was one of the goals I wrote down for the season. I write down goals of I want to accomplish for the season. That's just part of it. Right now, I'm trying to focus on winning the SEC Tournament and just doing what I got to do to win this SEC Tournament."
Q: Do you feel like this team is peaking at the right time?
RP: "Yeah, I do. I really feel like we're peaking at the right time. I feel like a couple wins, it's going to run off that we can get three or four games in row. I feel like we can get a streak going."
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland along with SEC award winners Tyson Carter and Reggie Perry met with the media on Tuesday to preview the upcoming SEC Tournament.
Earlier in the day, Perry was a consensus All-SEC First-Team selection by the coaches and media in addition to being named the SEC Co-Player of the Year by the Associated Press. Carter made program history as State's first recipient of the SEC's Sixth-Man of the Year award from the coaches.
The Bulldogs head into the SEC Tournament as the No. 4 seed with the winner capturing the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs earned a double dye and will face either Florida, Georgia or Ole Miss during Friday's quarterfinal round. Tip time is set for 2:30 p.m. CT televised by ESPN.
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.
Mississippi State Men's Basketball Media Session
Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Head Coach Ben Howland
Q: How are you and the team preparing for the SEC Tournament not knowing the team that you're going to face at this point?
BH: "Sunday, we had the day off. Yesterday, we went through a bunch of stuff with the five-on-zero, we lifted and we watched film. Today, we're doing shooting with each guy and keeping it really light because we're hopeful that we'll be playing a long time over in Nashville. We're trying to keep ourselves fresh. Tomorrow, we practice here, get on the plane and head up to Nashville. We'll practice up there at Belmont [University] on Thursday. We'll be scouting the Georgia-Ole Miss game on Wednesday night. Then, we'll be scouting Florida and whoever wins that game from Wednesday."
Q: What has Tyson Carter and Reggie Perry meant to this team?
BH: "Starting with Reggie, that's really nice that the AP [Associated Press] honored him with Co-MVP with Mason Jones from Arkansas, who's in the zone and a very fantastic player. I'm just really proud of Reggie who won the Bailey Howell award yesterday. That award is a huge significance to us around here especially because it's named after one of the greatest players in the history of the SEC and the best player to ever come out of Mississippi State for being the best player from the state of Mississippi. Breein Tyree was a terrific competitor for that award because he's a great player too in his own right. I was really proud of Reggie for that. The MVP of the league was just fantastic. He was named All-SEC First Team by the coaches as was Tyson named the [SEC] Sixth Man of the Year. Those are great honors to me because I don't get to vote. It's the fellow coaches in the league that recognize the best players in this conference. I think that says it all. There's a great respect for both of those guys from all the coaches that we've had to coach against and compete against in this league in other programs and other teams."
Q: How difficult do you think it was for Tyson Carter to embrace coming off the bench after he started a lot of games early in the season?
BH: "It really helped us. It changed our whole season when that happened for the better. When you look at his minutes, he's still averaging 27 minutes a game. He's playing starters minute. He's finishing games. The ball is in his hands at the end of the game in many cases at Arkansas, at Florida and at Missouri. He's done a great job at closing out the contest for us. He had a terrific year. When you say sixth man, it's like he's a starter. That's how the other coaches viewed it. We're a good team when we have him coming off the bench for us."
Q: How much are you thinking about bracketology and the projects? What would a run in the SEC Tournament mean to your team?
BH: "We all know what we're playing for. It's no secret. Everybody starts the year wanting to be a participant in the NCAA Tournament. It's right there dangling in front of us now. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do to complete the task."
Q: Do you have a feel going into the SEC Tournament of what your team has to do to make it to the NCAAs, or is it more of a win and remove all doubt situation?
BH: "I think you answered it. Win and remove all doubt … The main thing is just one game at a time. We have to win on Friday. Whoever we play, we have to beat. We better bring the same focus, concentration, and effort that we had for the Ole Miss game. If we do that, we're going to be hard for anybody to beat no matter who we play."
Guard Tyson Carter
Q: How did you adjust to coming off the bench throughout the season?
TC: "I kind of didn't like it at first because I had been a starter. I accepted it because I was just trying to do what's best for the team because I knew we needed a spark. It wasn't too big of an adjustment for me because I had been coming off the bench in the past."
Q: How much did you have to work to be able to fill in all the roles that you've filled for this team throughout this season?
TC: "Going into the season, I wanted to look at myself as the leader of the team. The leader of the team does whatever it takes for his team to win because that's the most important thing is the team winning. I just tried to fill in any role that I could just to make the team win. If that was playing point, playing at the two or coming off the bench, anything."
Forward Reggie Perry
Q: What does it mean to you to be named the SEC Co-Player of the Year?
RP: "It means a lot because I feel like I put in a lot of work. It was one of the goals I wrote down for the season. I write down goals of I want to accomplish for the season. That's just part of it. Right now, I'm trying to focus on winning the SEC Tournament and just doing what I got to do to win this SEC Tournament."
Q: Do you feel like this team is peaking at the right time?
RP: "Yeah, I do. I really feel like we're peaking at the right time. I feel like a couple wins, it's going to run off that we can get three or four games in row. I feel like we can get a streak going."
Players Mentioned
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