MSU tries to right the ship in South Carolina

Mississippi State is trying to move on.

After an ugly loss at Arkansas on Tuesday in which the Bulldogs had a whopping 26 turnovers, MSU has the chance to bounce back on Saturday at South Carolina. The Bulldogs have now lost four straight Southeastern Conference games.

"We've got to keep battling and keep fighting," State head coach Ben Howland said. "You have to fight when you're down. You have to fight your way back out of it."

On paper at least, MSU has a good shot at getting back into the win column against the Gamecocks. South Carolina has lost four of its last six games and sits below the .500 mark for the year. However the Gamecocks do bring some momentum into Saturday as they are coming off a 72-66 win at Florida.

So who will MSU have to contain come tip time if the Bulldogs want to claim a much-needed victory? South Carolina has three different players averaging 11 or more points per game. The Gamecocks are led by guard A.J. Lawson's 17.6 points per contest. Forward Keyshawn Bryant averages 14.6 per outing while guard Jermaine Couisnard tallies 11.8.

See below for more information on Saturday's game including how you can follow along, as well as comments from Howland's pre-South Carolina press conference. To watch Howland's full media session, see the video above.

What: Mississippi State (10-9, 4-6) at South Carolina (5-6, 3-4)
Where: Colonial Life Arena – Columbia, South Carolina
When: 2:30 p.m. central on Saturday, February 6, 2021
TV/Video: SEC Network, Online via ESPN.com/ESPN App
Radio/Audio: Mississippi State Sports Radio Network (click here for full list of affiliates), online at Hailstate.com and the TuneIn radio app

Comments from Ben Howland's 2-5-21 media session:

Question: What has your message to the team in practice been?

Ben Howland: “We had practice yesterday [Thursday] – Wednesday was off. We talked about the fact that we are where we are. We have to dig ourselves out of this hole that we’re in, in terms of a four-game losing streak, in our conference. Every game is so difficult because our league is so good. There’s no easy game. South Carolina is coming off a great win at Florida – they’re best win of the year. We’ve got to keep battling and keep fighting. You have to fight when you’re down. You have to fight your way back out of it. We talked about that prior to practice yesterday and during practice. Our guys had a good practice yesterday, so I was pleased with that.”

Q: You’ve talked about dealing with turnovers being the main issue you’re driving home and trying to correct over the last couple of weeks. What’s the key to success with fixing turnovers in terms of the double teams you saw at Arkansas, and the presses you saw earlier in conference play?

BH: “Really, when you look at the turnovers against Tennessee and Alabama, it had nothing to do with double teams. This had to do with poor decision making. This last game, they [Arkansas] ran [double teams] at Iverson [Molinar], Deivon [Smith], or D.J. [Stewart Jr.] to get it out of the hands of a specific player and saying, ‘Hey, we’re not going to guard you.’ That guy has to be able to handle the ball better.”

“That’s something we’ve talked about. We’ve watched the film, and we’ve watched the edits yesterday. I thought that when we got down, there were times offensively where we were really rushed. For example, in the second half against Arkansas, only two times did we pass the ball four times or more. That’s not enough patience, that’s getting sped up. You’ve got to be able to handle the pressure and not get sped up to where you’re playing faster than you’re capable of playing.”

Q: When the offense is struggling like it did the other night at Arkansas, is there a way where you can see more out of Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr.?

BH: “Well, we want them to take more shots than they did in the last game [at Arkansas], especially Iverson. He only took four shots. Part of that was him getting double teamed the whole time. But as a point guard, a lot of time you got to be able to drive in there and distribute the ball to open players. We have got to continue to demand that out of him. I thought he had a really good practice yesterday doing just that.”

“It hurt us in the last game that Deivon [Smith] got in foul trouble. He fouled out with 17 minutes of play. That was a critical thing especially against a team that’s trying to press you and trap you. He did the best job of anybody on our team at the guard position of handling the double team and scoring around it. Him getting in foul trouble was a real problem for us. It was something that happened with both of them. We got into a situation where both Iverson and Deivon were in foul trouble in the first half.”

Q: What have you seen out of South Carolina so far?

BH: “There a completely different team than what they’ve been in the past from the standpoint of they’ve always been a power-oriented, get the ball inside to [Maik] Kotsar and get the ball into [Carlos] Silva to play inside-out. Now they’re playing four guards around one big. Sometimes, they’ll even play five guards. [Keyshawn] Bryant comes off the bench. He’s maybe the most athletic guy in the SEC. I mean he is an absolute freak athlete who is having a great year. This is on a team that has been on two or three pauses. We’ve played more games in conference than they’ve played all year.”

“They’re a team that’s obviously coming together right now. They had a good win against Georgia at home. They had a bad loss against Vanderbilt on the road. They had their best win of the year at Florida on Wednesday night. Then, we have them there at their place tomorrow. So, they’re definitely coming off a highpoint of the season to beat a nationally ranked team like Florida on the road. It was a great win. We’re going to have our hands full because they’re going to have a lot of confidence coming into this game.”

“[Justin] Minaya starts at the four. He’s really a three-man that plays the four. It’s going to be a matchup for us where we’re going to have Tolu [Smith] guarding perimeter players as a power forward, being put into switches and situations where we’re going to have to handle that.”

Q: What did you think about Derek Fountain first extended minutes in SEC play at Arkansas, and how he handled that?

BH: “Well, it’s his only minutes in SEC play. I was looking at the stats. He’s going to play more minutes for us. I’ve been talking about that for the last two weeks because he gives you a blend of a guy who can make a shot and also defend.”

“He’s pretty good offensively in terms of passing the ball and making plays for others. He’s got a lot of good skills. He’s a kid that came in here at 202 pounds. Now, he weighs 220 pounds. He turned 18 this summer, so he’s young. I’ve really been pleased with his development. He loves the game. He spends a ton of time watching film and asking questions to the assistant coaches. He’s a great kid, and he has a very bright future.”

“He’s a kid I like because he’s a kid who can play at multiple positions. He can play at the small forward or at the stretch, power forward position especially with him putting enough weight on to fight off bigger players down there. Moving forward, I think he’ll end up being 225 pounds a year from now. I’m very excited about him. I thought he did a good job for us when he got in the other day. He was in the game when we cut the game to five points in the second half after falling behind by 16 [points]. He did some really good things, including hitting the three to cut it to five.”

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