Kentucky will have to contain the SEC's best player on Saturday

Kentucky basketball will look to bounce back on Saturday as the Mississippi State Bulldogs make their way into Rupp Arena coming off a hot 2-0 start in the SEC. The Bulldogs, led by Chris Jans, known well as "The Dentist" for his physical style of basketball, just had a statement win after dominating Oklahoma 72-53. Obviously, Kentucky needs to be ready for their entire team, especially with physicality, but one player in particular could spell trouble: Josh Hubbard.

Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard isn't just the best player on the team, he's the best in the SEC. Why? His electric scoring ability. Last game against Oklahoma, Hubbard helped lead the Bulldogs to a 19-point win by putting up 30 points, all while shooting just 1-7 from three, and instead was 7-9 from the free-throw line. That threat to be able to get to the rim when the shots aren't falling could be trouble for Kentucky. The Wildcat's can't leave him open from deep, as despite coming off that shooting performance, he is still 2nd in program history in made threes. Mississippi State's style of offense is actually similar to Alabama, who Kentucky struggled to contain. It's clear that they either score in the paint at will, or if they get hot, become dangerous by shooting threes. The Wildcats can't let them get hot, because they'll already have a lot to deal with offensively with their blocking and rebounding ability. It's a very dangerous matchup against a team that is fast on offense and extremely physical on defense, really taking away opponents' shots.

Hubbard is not only the best player in the SEC this season, but his terrific scoring ability has put him #4 in college basketball in points per game, averaging 23.0 points per game. That's the best Kentucky is going to face all season, and they need to be ready for it. The 6-foot guard is such a big part of their scoring, so much so that he ranks #8 in the country in percentage of shots on a team, taking 34.5 percent of the Bulldogs' shots. Here is what Mark Pope had to say on the current SEC Player of the Year favorite and one of the top scorers in the sport, who is averaging 34 points per game the past two games:

"Nobody's been able to stop him yet. He's really good man. I like watching him play. He's really aggressive, and he actually he's their leading assist guy by far. So interestingly enough, their point guard position is the number one scoring point guard position percentage of their team's points of any team in the entire country, they're 34.5 or 34.7% of their their their points come from their point guard position. ...Stopping Josh Hubbard is more than just trying to reduce his points per game, which nobody's been effective at. I mean, he scored 30 on one for seven shooting from the three in his last game. That's, that's really impressive. And so he's a real challenge, but also the impact he has on the rest of the game. ...I had some comps on him defensively that I'm not going to mention right now, because it might think I'm crazy, but l like talking about his effort and energy on the defense, man. So all we talk about the way these guards score, their defensive efficiency has been ridiculous last couple games, like, it's unbelievable what they've done on the defensive end of the floor. And I think he's been a huge catalyst. He's an electric scorer, he's their best playmaker, their best assist guy, by far, and he's bringing on the defensive end right now. He's got a full, complete game."

Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard is having a HISTORIC season:

23.0 PPG
2.3 RPG
3.7 APG
1.3 SPG
42.7% FG
35.2% 3PT
82.9% FT

Will he go down as one of the greatest SEC scorers ever?? 🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/fonTFPOMZL
— MBB Performances (@mbbperformances) January 8, 2026

What about the rest of Jans' Bulldogs squad? "They get your defense so skewed that you know, in their first two games (in SEC), they've been 41 and 43 percent of the potential offensive rebounds they've come up with," Pope said on Mississippi State. "They're just crushing teams on the offensive glass right now. Their three, four and five have really embraced this opportunity that the spacing gets skewed and they're going to go kill you on the offensive glass. ...Their backcourt is really impactful. 10 and two are also real problems (aside from Hubbard). And like I said, the rest of the crew is really tough on the glass. Their center position had 18 and 14 last game, so they're a good team. That's why they're 2-0 in the SEC right now."

Kentucky fans all know their team's backs are against the wall. One thing is for certain: They can't lose again in Rupp Arena, and it starts with containing star guard Josh Hubbard.

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