Seventh ranked Dogs host Gators
By By Austin Bishop / EMG regional sports director
Jan. 7, 2003
STARKVILLE There won't be any fiery motivational pregame speeches coming out of the mouth of Mississippi State men's basketball coach Rick Stansbury today.
He says there will be no need.
Stansbury said he and his staff have used a laid-back approach in an attempt to tone down the emotions of the Bulldogs, 10-1, and who are playing at home for the first time since a 78-38 thumping of Louisiana Tech on Dec. 7.
The game, which will be televised nationally on
ESPN, features two teams coming off strong non-conference records, and both searching for a strong start to what will be a grueling SEC season.
MSU, ranked No. 7 in the country, has won 10 straight games with the last five coming on the road. The wins include two against teams ranked in the Top 25 Oklahoma (No. 5) and Xavier (No. 11). Those two victories give the Bulldogs wins in their last five games against ranked opponents, including two over Alabama and a win over then No. 11 ranked Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals last season.
Florida comes in with a seven-game winning streak and an 11-2 overall mark, tying a school record for most wins before opening conference play. The Gators finished third in the Preseason NIT and have wins over such strong programs as Kansas (83-73), Maryland (69-64) and Miami (94-93).
The last three games have been preseason soft touches for Florida, as the Gators rolled past Charleston Southern, Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M.
While the Gators had plenty of scoring punch returning from last year's team that went 22-9 and reached the NCAA Tournament, the team's two leading scorers this year are freshman.
That's something that is not lost on Stansbury.
Those freshmen are forward Matt Walsh and guard Anthony Roberson.
Walsh was 7-for-7 from three-point range in Florida's 99-64 win over Bethune-Cookman and leads the Gators with 16.8 points per game. He leads the SEC in three-point shooting percentage at .524 and has knocked down 33-of-63 on the season.
Roberson averages 14.4 points per game for UF, while Walsh is also a hot three-point shooter, knocking down 26-of-56 for a .464 percentage.
As a team, Florida is second in the SEC in three-point shooting, hitting at a .392 clip, sinking 125-of-319 attempts. The second-most three pointers made by an SEC team is 92 by Georgia.
While Mississippi State is No. 1 in the SEC in defensive field goal percentage (.366), the Bulldogs are No. 11 against the three-point shot (.343), setting up an interesting matchup.
MSU's success the last two seasons has been built on defense.
Stansbury said Michal Ignerski and Mario Austin have continued to improve defensively on the interior, while senior point guard Derrick Zimmerman spearheads the defense from the point guard position.
