Character Coming Through
January 13, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Joel Coleman
On the heels of a setback, Bulldogs once again answer.
STARKVILLE – Inside the Mississippi State locker room, there's a belief this season can be special. The feeling was palpable long before the year even tipped off.
Here's the thing about lofty goals and high hopes. Very rarely is the path to achieving dreams a clear one.
For MSU, the clouds have rolled in a few times this season. There was the year's first loss to Louisville. There were back-to-back defeats at the hands of Minnesota, then Colorado State. Then came the most recent disappointment last Saturday at Ole Miss.
Each setback hurt. Yet what the trials also might've done is reveal exactly who these Bulldogs are – a team so mature and confident in its ability that no pothole is going to slow it down.
That loss to Louisville? It was followed by back-to-back wins. After dropping the games to Minnesota and Colorado State, MSU went on a four-game winning streak punctuated by a resounding win over Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference opener.
Then came Wednesday night. Only four days after falling in Oxford, there was Mississippi State picking itself up, dusting itself off and putting itself right back on the road towards its ambitions.
The Maroon and White Bulldogs beat the Georgia kind 88-72. It was the latest display of how MSU won't allow its problems to snowball. When the Dawgs get bucked off their figurative horse, they get right back in the saddle.
"I think we have high-character kids," Mississippi State head coach Ben Howland said. "I'm really blessed in that manner. Our character as a group is really high. They're high-character guys. They were obviously really bothered by the loss and the performance up in Oxford. I thought they came back and had two very tough grueling practices on Monday and Tuesday to prepare themselves to come out and play better. That speaks to their character."
More than one coach has said you'll play how you practice. If that's the case, Wednesday night provided plenty of evidence that Howland wasn't kidding when bragging about his team's pre-Georgia workouts.
The Bulldogs used a total-team effort to pick itself up off the mat. There was Iverson Molinar scoring a career-high 28 points and tying a career best with seven assists.
Cameron Matthews scored 10 points to hit double figures against an SEC foe for the first time ever.
Javian Davis and Andersson Garcia set new career highs in scoring. Davis tallied 12 points and Garcia had 10 off the Bulldog bench. Another reserve, Rocket Watts, added seven points.
Garrison Brooks set a new career single-game mark with four blocks. Shakeel Moore scored eight points and had multiple steals for the 11th time in 15 games this season. D.J. Jeffries did a little bit of everything with seven points, five rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
When you look at those names, it shouldn't come as much surprise MSU knows a thing or two about how to bite back once bitten. Molinar, Davis, Watts, Brooks and Jeffries are all juniors that have been through too many wars to count. Davis, Watts, Brooks and Jeffries, along with the sophomore Moore, all are transfers who've been on the court at other big-time schools, providing them with another layer of experience.
None of this even mentions redshirt junior big man Tolu Smith, the SEC's defending rebounding king who's missed the last two games, or a guy like Derek Fountain who played such a big role for State a year ago. Even freshman Cam Carter seems wise beyond his years.
This is a team too grown up to throw in a towel when the going has gotten tough.
"[Earlier this season], I said we have mature guys on the team," Molinar said. "Even if we lose one or two games, we're still going to bounce back from that and the confidence, we're never going to lose the confidence. We know how good we are when we play hard at both ends of the floor. [It helps] just having that experience, having a bunch of juniors and sophomores and seniors that have already been through games like that and already been through times when they needed to bounce back when stuff didn't go right. That's what we did [Wednesday] and we're going to keep building off of this."
If you didn't catch any hint of panic in Molinar's words, it's because there wasn't any. There was no desperation. There wasn't any false bravado either.
There was simply – here's that word again – belief. Belief Mississippi State has the pieces to succeed. Belief his Bulldogs have the talent to get on a roll. And seemingly belief this team's best days are in front of it.
Last Saturday and a few other dates this season have no doubt been tough moments, but Wednesday night reemphasized that the same internal confidence this MSU group had amongst itself headed into the year remains. A little turbulence hasn't dampened State's spirit. The Bulldogs have too much character to let that happen. The prior storms have only proven MSU knows how to stay singing and dancing and believing right on through the rain, keeping hope alive and well.
