STARKVILLE — The story of the Mississippi State men’s basketball team’s 78-55 blowout victory against Kennesaw State may have been carried into the locker room with a little more than five minutes left in the game.
MSU freshman point guard IJ Ready needed to be helped into the training room after suffering an injury with 5 minutes, 27 seconds remaining. Ready appeared to injury his leg or ankle after delivering a lead pass for a fast-break dunk to junior forward Roquez Johnson that gave MSU a 65-52 lead. Ready doubled over in pain and needed to be taken out of action immediately. After less than a minute, Ready was helped off the bench and into the locker room by a walk-on teammate and MSU trainer Scotty Johnson.
Ready had six assists and one turnover in 24 minutes, but MSU coach Rick Ray said he was concerned his freshman point guard was a little too unselfish. Ready took only two 3-pointers and gave up easy layups to pass the ball to teammates for 3-pointers.
“I think a lot of times nobody is stopping him on his penetration and he settles for passing the ball instead of continuing to put pressure on those big guys,” Ray said. “I think sometimes IJ turns down opportunities to attack, and he has to understand he doesn’t always have to attack to score but because of his good vision he turns down layups.”
Ray didn’t have an update on Ready’s status, and said he wouldn’t know the situation until today at the earliest.
Not enough touches for Ware
Ray said his team’s poor performance in the first half was attributed in part to the fact that 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Gavin Ware didn’t get enough touches at the low block.
Ware struggled to get inside position and only had nine points in 23 minutes. Kennesaw State mixed defenses and had players with length guard at the former Starkville High standout.
“I think in a zone what happens is you try to go to open spots, and that’s not going to work because Gavin thinks he’s open but there’s bodies around him, so guys don’t feel good about throwing the ball into the post,” Ray said. “I don’t care, though, what the other team is in defensively, and we have to get Gavin touches. He was 4 for 4 from the field tonight, and I think that’s 100 percent. I’m no math genius, but I think that’s pretty good.”
Ware, who was a All-Freshman team selection in the Southeastern Conference last year, had 10 rebounds but he only had three points in the first half. Ware led the team with 15 points and 15 rebounds against Prairie View A&M last week in the season opener.
Davis finally makes MSU debut
In a game where his coach didn’t expect him to be able to play until minutes before tip, redshirt freshman Jacoby Davis finally returned from a serious knee injury.
Davis is still trying to work through a torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered before the 2012-13 season after he was recruited from the St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy in Delafield, Wis.
Davis checked into the game and played the final two minutes and earned a assist. He returned to practice last January, but he was cleared for games this summer after he and Dre Applewhite, late signees by Ray’s staff, suffered season-ending injuries before the 2012-13 season started.
“We really didn’t expect Jacoby to play, but I got late word from Scotty (Johnson) that he wanted to give him a try because he had been progressing to 5-on-5 activity this week,” Ray said. “He had no setbacks, swelling, and irritation. I sat down with Jacoby today and said there’s a difference between the training staff saying you’re ready to go and you being ready to go mentally.”
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.