Gameday: Five Things to Know about MSU-South Carolina

Saturday, February 6

Columbia, S.C.

2:30 PM

Mississippi State

South Carolina

Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

Gameday: Five Things to Know about MSU-South Carolina

February 05, 2021 | Men's Basketball

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by Matt Dunaway, Associate Director/Communications

COLUMBIA, South Carolina – The Mississippi State men's basketball team returns to the hardwood for the final leg of its four-game conference road trip and renews its annual home-and-home series with South Carolina on Saturday at Colonial Life Arena.

The Bulldogs (10-9, 4-6 SEC) and Gamecocks (5-6, 3-4 SEC) will meet twice in an 18-day span. State will look to end a four-game SEC skid, while Carolina will look to build on a 72-66 road win at No. 22 Florida earlier this week.

A balanced offensive attack has been a successful formula for Mississippi State in 2020-21 as the Bulldogs has won eight of their nine games in 2020-21 record when four players or more reach double figures.

Mississippi State has won the battle of boards against 16 of its 19 opponents in 2020-21, highlighted by a +10 rebounding margin in seven games. The Bulldogs hold the SEC's top spot limiting their opponents to 31.0 rebounds per game and a +8.7 rebounding margin.

Mississippi State is 6-1 when committing 12 turnovers or less and have won all eight of its outings when knocking down at least eight three-pointers this season.

MSU-SOUTH CAROLINA HARDWOOD SERIES
The two teams began its home-and-home slate back in 2015-16 and have split the last 10 meetings during the Ben Howland era. Overall, the Bulldogs hold a 23-16 all-time series advantage over South Carolina.

Home court advantage has been key in the last five meeting, and State's last win in Columbia came during an 81-76 triumph on 01/31/2018.

Nick Weatherspoon dialed up 18 points and six assists followed by D.J. Stewart Jr.'s 16 points and Abdul Ado's 14 points as the Bulldogs earned a 79-76 win in Starkville last season.

The Matchup: Mississippi State (10-9, 4-6 SEC) vs. South Carolina (5-6, 3-4 SEC)
Where: Columbia, South Carolina – Colonial Life Arena
When: Saturday, February 6, 2:30 p.m. CT
Live Stats: StatBroadcast (https://hailst.at/MBKLiveStats)

TV: SEC Network
Talent: Kevin Fitzgerald, Dane Bradshaw
DirecTV: Ch. 611, Dish: Ch. 404/408, AT&T U-Verse: Ch. 1607, MaxxSouth: Ch. 1026, C Spire: Ch. 220
Online: Watch ESPN app & Watch ESPN online (Cable Subscription Required)
(http://hailst.at/MSUvsSC020621)

Radio: Mississippi State Sports Network – Powered by Learfield IMG College
Talent: Neil Price
Affiliates: WKBB-FM 100.9 Starkville/West Point (Full List: https://hailst.at/MBKAffiliates)
Free Online Audio: Hail State Plus (https://hailst.at/MBKListen); Tune-In Radio App (https://hailst.at/MBKTuneIn)
Sirius/XM: Ch. 380 (XM), Ch. 970 (Internet)

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MISSISSIPPI STATE
1. Mississippi State has garnered 20+ overall wins in three straight seasons and captured 10+ SEC victories during back-to-back campaigns under sixth-year coach Ben Howland. The Bulldogs have amassed 78 victories since the start of the 2017-18 season which is tied for fourth-most with LSU in the SEC and only behind Auburn (91), Kentucky (86) and Tennessee (86). This year's squad will look to join the 1960-61, 1961-62 and 1962-63 teams as the only group in program history to win 10+ SEC games in three consecutive seasons.

Howland along with assistant coaches George Brooks, Korey McCray and Ernie Zeigler are in their sixth season together in Starkville during the 2020-21 season. The Bulldogs coaching quartet of head coach and three assistants is one of eight staffs in the country to remain together at the same school for the last six seasons. The other staffs include Michigan State (11th) led by Tom Izzo, West Virginia (9th) led by Bob Huggins, UAlbany (9th) led by Will Brown, Kansas (7th) led by Bill Self, Oregon (7th) led by Dana Altman, Vermont (7th) led by John Becker and Bradley (6th) led by Brian Wardle.

2. Iverson Molinar, Tolu Smith and D.J. Stewart Jr. are etching their names among the notable freshmen-to-sophomore jumps at Mississippi State, under Ben Howland and in the SEC over the last decade.
The trio has piled up 45 games in double figures, headed by 13 outings of 20-plus points. The Bulldogs are 9-0 when each member of the trio scores at least 10 points this season.

Molinar, Smith and Stewart Jr. have racked up 46.7 points per game, which is second-most in the SEC only behind LSU's Cameron Thomas, Trendon Watford and Javonte Smart. It also marks the highest MSU scoring trio since Ravern Johnson, Dee Bost and Renardo Sidney piled up 47.1 points per game during the 2010-11 season.

Stewart Jr. (17.1 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.4 SPG) has captured 10 of his top 11 career scoring performances in 2020-21. He pumped home a SEC career-high 27 points and added a career-best four steals at No. 18 Alabama (01/23). Stewart Jr. exploded for a SEC season's best 32 points on 13-of-22 shooting versus Dayton (12/12). The Bulldogs have posted a 21-10 record over the last two seasons when he scores 10-plus points.
The Grace, Mississippi, native has already surpassed his 2019-20 total with 17 games in double figures, highlighted by a 12 consecutive games to start the season. He piled up 24 points during the second half of State's 78-63 win over No. 13 Missouri (01/05). Stewart Jr.'s 17.1 points per game are fourth and his 42.6 percent shooting clip is 11th among SEC leaders. He and Molinar are two of eight SEC players to have at least five games of 20-plus points this season.

Molinar (16.9 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 2.9 APG, 1.2 SPG) has notched double figures in 14 of his 16 outings and during 18 of his 24 career starts. He secured a 20-point outing, his sixth of the season, versus Iowa State (01/30). MSU has racked up a 14-5 record when Molinar provides 10-plus points in his career. His 16.9 points is fifth, his 47.4 field goal percentage is fifth and his 82.5 free throw percentage is sixth on the SEC leaderboard. Molinar amassed career-highs with 24 points at Vanderbilt (01/09) and at Georgia (12/30). The Panama native has piled up nine of his top 10 career scoring efforts this season.

Molinar's 11.0 points per game improvement from his freshmen to his sophomore season is tops among SEC players this season and fifth-highest in the SEC over the last decade. Current Toronto Raptors and former Ole Miss guard Terence Davis from the 2015-16 to 2016-17 season holds the decade's top spot at a 13.1 points per game improvement.

Smith (12.7 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 1.1 BPG) has collected 14 games in double figures during his first season with the Maroon and White. Prior to his time at MSU, his previous career-high was nine points against West Virginia (11/16/2018) while at Western Kentucky.

Smith is tied for second in the SEC with five double-doubles on the season, most recently career-bests with 27 points and 14 rebounds against Florida (01/16). He tallied 17 of his 27 points, eight of his 14 rebounds and sank all six of his shot attempts during the second half.

Smith's 8.4 rebounds per game and 3.6 offensive rebounds per contest headline the SEC. His six games of 10-plus boards is tied for second, while his 4.8 defensive rebounds per game is eighth in the SEC rankings. Smith has connected on 44-of-71 from the field over his last nine appearances.

3. Abdul Ado (5.3 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 1.9 BPG), the SEC's active leader in blocks and rebounds, is scheduled to make his 117th career start during Saturday's South Carolina game. The 117 starts are good enough for third-place tie with former teammate Quinndary Weatherspoon (2016-17-18-19) and would be six shy of the program's all-time leader Dee Bost (2009-10-11-12). He ranks first among Power five players and third overall among NCAA active players in blocks followed by a tied for 11th place showing among active Power 5 players in rebounds.

Ado has ranked among the SEC's top 10 in blocks shots during all four seasons and his 1.9 blocks per game is fourth this season. Overall, Ado has piled up 218 career blocks, which ranks third in program history. His 1.86 career blocks per game also is third in program history, only behind NCAA all-time leader Jarvis Varnado and Erick Dampier. The Nigeria native has amassed 63 career games with multiple rejections.

Ado is Mississippi State's all-time field goal percentage leader heading into the South Carolina contest among players with at least 250 baskets made. His 59.3 career shooting clip also checks in seventh among active Power 5 players. Ado came away with a SEC season's best with 11 points against Florida (01/16) and hauled down a season-high 12 rebounds at No. 18 Tennessee (01/26).

4. Mississippi State's roster features a talented group of newcomers. The freshmen class is ignited by Deivon Smith (4.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.8 APG) and Cameron Matthews (2.7 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 1.1 SPG), who became the first true freshmen tandem to start a MSU season opener since Tyson Carter and Mario Kegler during the 2016-17 season.

Smith, the eighth ESPN top 100 signee to play with the Bulldogs under head coach Ben Howland, exploded for a career-best 13 points. He also handed out three assists and added two steals in his home state at Georgia (12/30). Smith has tallied five-plus points in five of his 10 SEC games and dished out three-plus assists in six of his 10 SEC outings. He has distributed 34 assists against 16 turnovers during his last 11 games and set a new career-high with nine dimes versus Iowa State (01/30).

Matthews has impacted the game on the defensive end with steals in 13 of 19 games and registered multiple steals on six occasions. He secured the game-clinching steal on Vanderbilt's Scotty Pippen Jr. during the closing seconds in Nashville. Matthews came away with a SEC season's best of six points and a career-high seven rebounds at No. 18 Alabama (01/23).

MSU's freshmen class also features Keondre Montgomery and Derek Fountain, who coupled with Matthews, are the state of Mississippi's top three prospects for the Class of 2020. Fountain (3.2 PPG, 1.4 RPG) has come away with seven points against Iowa State (01/30) and at Arkansas (02/03).

5. The Bulldogs also have received solid contributions from Jalen Johnson (6.2 PPG, 2.0 RPG), Javian Davis (3.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG) and Quinten Post (3.5 PPG, 2.4 RPG).

Johnson has piled up 1,179 points and 533 rebounds over 118 career games with his previous stops being at Saint Louis and Louisiana-Lafayette. He has amassed 58 career outings of 10-plus points and 11 outings of 20-plus points. Johnson has knocked down at least one trey in 14 of 19 games and multiple three's in six outings during the 2020-21 campaign.

Davis posted 6.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game over his 31 appearances as a redshirt freshmen at Alabama in 2019-20. His top Bama performance was a 20-point, 10-rebound effort against South Carolina (02/29/2020). Davis chipped in SEC season-high of five points, seven rebounds and two assists versus Kentucky (01/02) and returned to the rotation after a four-game absence against Ole Miss (01/19).

Post fired in a career-best 10 points versus Mississippi Valley State (12/21) to claim his first career game in double figures. He fired in a SEC season's best six points at Arkansas (02/02). Post also collected a career-best 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals at No. 18 Tennessee (01/26). The Netherlands native has upped his marks to 6.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game in his last three outings and has scored in 15 of his 25 career appearances at Mississippi State.

KNOW YOUR OPPONENT
The Gamecocks have won two of their last three highlighted by a 72-66 signature victory over No. 22 Florida on Wednesday. South Carolina holds the SEC's top spot and comes into this weekend's action averaging 14.27 offensive rebounds per game.

A.J. Lawson (17.6 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 1.6 SPG) has racked up six games of 20-plus points since the calendar turned to 2021. He provided 22 points and eight rebounds at Florida (02/03) and came away with 21 points at Vanderbilt (01/30). Lawson has drained multiple treys in seven of those eight appearances in 2021 and converted on 31 of his 67 field goals from three-point territory on the season. The 17.6 points per contest is good enough for third place on the SEC leaderboard.

Keyshawn Bryant (14.6 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.1 BPG) has chipped in double-digit points in seven of his nine efforts on the season. He provided a season's best 26 points coupled with seven rebounds and four blocks at LSU (01/16). Bryant tacked on a 24-point performance versus Auburn (01/3) and has knocked down six or more field goals in five of his last six games.

Jermaine Couisnard (11.8 PPG, 3.7 APG, 1.4 SPG) has distributed four-plus assists in six of his last eight outings. He has registered double figures in seven of his 11 starts with an SEC-best 18 points during the Georgia game (01/27). The 3.7 assists are sixth in the SEC rankings.

Justin Minaya (8.5 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 2.1 APG) has turned in a trio of double-doubles on the season, most recently 10 points and 11 rebounds at Missouri (01/19). He has maintained his 7.0 rebounds per contest in conference action which sits tied for sixth among SEC players.

Recently, Seventh Woods (5.0 PPG, 1.4 SPG) has picked up his play with back-to-back games in double figures. He has upped his marks to 11.5 points over his last two outings and connected on 11 of his 17 from the field. Woods pumped home a season-high 12 points at No. 22 Florida (02/03).

FROM THE BENCH – BEN HOWLAND MEDIA SESSION
Head Coach Ben Howland
Q: What has your message to the team in practice been?
BH: "We had practice yesterday [Thursday] – Wednesday was off. We talked about the fact that we are where we are. We have to dig ourselves out of this hole that we're in, in terms of a four-game losing streak, in our conference. Every game is so difficult because our league is so good. There's no easy game. South Carolina is coming off a great win at Florida – they're best win of the year. We've got to keep battling and keep fighting. You have to fight when you're down. You have to fight your way back out of it. We talked about that prior to practice yesterday and during practice. Our guys had a good practice yesterday, so I was pleased with that."

Q: You've talked about dealing with turnovers being the main issue you're driving home and trying to correct over the last couple of weeks. What's the key to success with fixing turnovers in terms of the double teams you saw at Arkansas, and the presses you saw earlier in conference play?
BH: "Really, when you look at the turnovers against Tennessee and Alabama, it had nothing to do with double teams. This had to do with poor decision making. This last game, they [Arkansas] ran [double teams] at Iverson [Molinar], Deivon [Smith], or D.J. [Stewart Jr.] to get it out of the hands of a specific player and saying, 'Hey, we're not going to guard you.' That guy has to be able to handle the ball better."

"That's something we've talked about. We've watched the film, and we've watched the edits yesterday. I thought that when we got down, there were times offensively where we were really rushed. For example, in the second half against Arkansas, only two times did we pass the ball four times or more. That's not enough patience, that's getting sped up. You've got to be able to handle the pressure and not get sped up to where you're playing faster than you're capable of playing."

Q: When the offense is struggling like it did the other night at Arkansas, is there a way where you can see more out of Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr.?
BH: "Well, we want them to take more shots than they did in the last game [at Arkansas], especially Iverson. He only took four shots. Part of that was him getting double teamed the whole time. But as a point guard, a lot of time you got to be able to drive in there and distribute the ball to open players. We have got to continue to demand that out of him. I thought he had a really good practice yesterday doing just that."

"It hurt us in the last game that Deivon [Smith] got in foul trouble. He fouled out with 17 minutes of play. That was a critical thing especially against a team that's trying to press you and trap you. He did the best job of anybody on our team at the guard position of handling the double team and scoring around it. Him getting in foul trouble was a real problem for us. It was something that happened with both of them. We got into a situation where both Iverson and Deivon were in foul trouble in the first half."

Q: What have you seen out of South Carolina so far?
BH: "There a completely different team than what they've been in the past from the standpoint of they've always been a power-oriented, get the ball inside to [Maik] Kotsar and get the ball into [Carlos] Silva to play inside-out. Now they're playing four guards around one big. Sometimes, they'll even play five guards. [Keyshawn] Bryant comes off the bench. He's maybe the most athletic guy in the SEC. I mean he is an absolute freak athlete who is having a great year. This is on a team that has been on two or three pauses. We've played more games in conference than they've played all year."

"They're a team that's obviously coming together right now. They had a good win against Georgia at home. They had a bad loss against Vanderbilt on the road. They had their best win of the year at Florida on Wednesday night. Then, we have them there at their place tomorrow. So, they're definitely coming off a highpoint of the season to beat a nationally ranked team like Florida on the road. It was a great win. We're going to have our hands full because they're going to have a lot of confidence coming into this game."

"[Justin] Minaya starts at the four. He's really a three-man that plays the four. It's going to be a matchup for us where we're going to have Tolu [Smith] guarding perimeter players as a power forward, being put into switches and situations where we're going to have to handle that."

Q: What did you think about Derek Fountain first extended minutes in SEC play at Arkansas, and how he handled that?
BH: "Well, it's his only minutes in SEC play. I was looking at the stats. He's going to play more minutes for us. I've been talking about that for the last two weeks because he gives you a blend of a guy who can make a shot and also defend."

"He's pretty good offensively in terms of passing the ball and making plays for others. He's got a lot of good skills. He's a kid that came in here at 202 pounds. Now, he weighs 220 pounds. He turned 18 this summer, so he's young. I've really been pleased with his development. He loves the game. He spends a ton of time watching film and asking questions to the assistant coaches. He's a great kid, and he has a very bright future."

"He's a kid I like because he's a kid who can play at multiple positions. He can play at the small forward or at the stretch, power forward position especially with him putting enough weight on to fight off bigger players down there. Moving forward, I think he'll end up being 225 pounds a year from now. I'm very excited about him. I thought he did a good job for us when he got in the other day. He was in the game when we cut the game to five points in the second half after falling behind by 16 [points]. He did some really good things, including hitting the three to cut it to five."

UP NEXT
Mississippi State plays its first conference home game in 22 days and squares off with LSU on Wednesday. Tip time is slated for 8 p.m. CT from Humphrey Coliseum, televised by ESPNU and available online courtesy of the Watch ESPN app.

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.