3 Areas of Improvement For MSU Basketball After a Dominant Win Over Arizona St.

Looking into some areas that MSU men's basketball could improve in as the season gets started.

The Mississippi State basketball team started the season strong with an impressive 71-56 win against Arizona State on Wednesday night in Chicago. This is without their star player Tolu Smith, who will be out with a foot injury until SEC play in January.

Head coach Chris Jans is looking more comfortable as his blueprint for the future of the program is starting to take shape. JUCO transfer Trey Fort led the team in scoring with 21 points while catching fire toward the end of the first half and finishing the game with six 3-pointers.

The 3-pointer was one of the weaknesses for the Bulldogs all of last year as they finished last in 3-point percentage not just in the Southeastern Conference, but in the entire country. The lack of shooting was not going to take MSU to the next level and the Bulldogs might have already found the answer.

MSU looked good for the first game of the season, however, there were still areas that could be fixed as the season gets rolling. 

1. Free-Throw Shooting

As physical as a team Mississippi State can be, the free-throw line is still one of the most inconsistent things that plague the Bulldogs. Against the Sun Devils, they shot 77.3 percent from the stripe. This is an improvement from last season but later on in the season it could be the difference between wins and losses. With big bodies all over the floor getting fouled will be inevitable, but it will come down to the consistency the big men to make the easy ones.

2. Turnovers

After the first few minutes of the second half, there was no doubt that MSU had control over the game. However, against better teams, the sloppy turnovers could come back and bite the Bulldogs. They had 15 total turnovers and some of them came down to the lack of discipline with passes. A few short careless passes can change the momentum of a game. Shifts were also one of the many things that held back State last season. A focus on controlling the ball will allow for more scoring opportunities and more points to be scored.

3. More Cowbell ... err, Offense

The offense was free-flowing even with the sloppy turnovers. Just off of this first game alone, one can tell the offense was emphasized during the offseason. An example of this could be seen when head coach Chris Jans was yelling at junior forward D.J. Jefferies to take the many open 3-point shots the Sun Devils were daring him to shoot. State has one of the best defenses in the country but if you cannot come up with points on the other end it'll come up short against gun-slinging opponents. The ball movement was excellent but at some points, it became stagnant. When the ball was moving quickly and efficiently it allowed the shooters to make 10 3-pointers. That only happened twice in the previous season.

Mississippi State will have its home opener on Saturday (4 p.m., SEC Network+) where it will host UT Martin (1-0).

Mississippi State Basketball Handles Arizona State 71-56 in Season Opener