Mississippi hoops teams enter tough league play

By By Will Bardwell / sports writer
Jan. 15, 2004
Time to come out from behind that soft non-conference schedule, kids.
League play is in full swing for Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss. All three teams have played some incredible basketball at times, but unfortunately for them, they've also played poorly at times.
Mississippi State has quite obviously established itself as the state's top basketball team this year. After a 13-0 start, the Bulldogs played Kentucky tooth-and-nail on Tuesday in one of MSU's most exciting games in recent memory. The Bulldogs' defense was fantastic, putting together 39:57.5 of their best basketball of the season.
Those last 2.5 seconds came back to bite the Dogs though, as a last-second inbounds pass found its way underneath for an easy buzzer-beater and a one-point Kentucky win. Whoops.
Still, Mississippi State is in good shape. The Bulldogs are, from early indications, probably the best team in the Southeastern Conference's West division. A 2-1 start in SEC play is nothing to be ashamed of, and Tuesday night proved the Dogs can play with anybody.
The team is kind of a walking contradiction. On one hand, Mississippi State returned just one starter from a year ago. Nonetheless, they're better than they were a year ago. Lawrence Roberts may not be as good as Mario Austin was, but Roberts is certainly more versatile and more useful. He's comfortable just about anywhere on the floor.
The next couple of games will tell a lot about MSU. Should the Bulldogs bounce back mentally from the Kentucky loss and I think they will they need to pull out at least one of their next two games. MSU is at LSU on Saturday and at Florida on Wednesday. I think the Bulldogs are just as good as the Gators, but it's almost impossible to win in Gainesville. A split puts Mississippi State at 3-2 in the SEC before it comes home for three of four at home.
After the Florida game, the meat of the Bulldogs' schedule is behind them. They could very well win out afterward.
Ole Miss is not so lucky. As far as Mississippi State has come in the past few seasons, the Rebels have regressed. Ole Miss is 0-2 in conference play after stealing defeat from the jaws of victory against MSU and getting blown away on the road against Auburn. Once upon a time, Tad Smith Coliseum was the absolute last place anyone wanted to play. Nowadays, visiting teams are falling all over themselves to get in there.
The Rebels won't lose out, but they're certainly bad enough to do so. Aside from senior forward Justin Reed, who has done a remarkable job of keeping the Rebels respectable in most games, there's nothing. Coming into the season, head coach Rod Barnes was looking for a third scoring threat to complement Reed and Aaron Harper. Not only did that third scoring threat never materialize, neither did Harper.
As a result, Ole Miss' offense dies completely whenever Reed can't get to the basket. A few years ago, no one dared play zone defense against the Rebels, because they could shoot the lights out. Not anymore. Mississippi State trailed by double digits against the Rebels in the second half last week. As soon as Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury put in a 1-3-1 zone, the game was over. Ole Miss scored something like three field goals in the last nine minutes of the game. That's not going to get it done, and neither are the Rebels, who are probably the worst team in the SEC.
And while the Bulldogs and Rebels are easy enough to label, Southern Miss is the state's wildcard. They're certainly nowhere close to being a Top 25 team, but they're not bad either. Unlike Ole Miss, Southern Miss mixed a handful of respectable non-conference opponents into its schedule. Thus, the Golden Eagle's 7-4 non-conference record may be fairly indicative of their chances.
Conference USA has some solid teams, but it also has some patsies. If Southern Miss can trip up a couple of teams and win the games it's supposed to win, the Golden Eagles could conceivably get to the NCAA Tournament.
I don't think they'll get quite that far, but I would be a little surprised if Southern Miss doesn't make a serious push at the NIT.
The only tournament to which Ole Miss will be invited is a bingo competition, but Mississippi State is definitely capable of making noise well into March. The Bulldogs' questionable depth will keep them from the deep rounds, but a trip to the Sweet Sixteen isn't a crazy idea. MSU could have close to 25 wins by the time the Tournament starts, which would probably make the Bulldogs at least a No. 4 seed. That would certainly make their job easier.
Ole Miss aside, it looks like college basketball fans in Mississippi should be happily occupied after the regular season ends.