STARKVILLE — As it turns out, the film told Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray what he already knew: J.J. Frazier didn’t miss.
Frazier, Georgia’s sophomore point guard, was 7-for-7 from 3-point range Saturday in a 72-66 win against MSU at Humphrey Coliseum. It was a performance that sent Ray searching for what went wrong.
“It was about our defensive assignments,” Ray said. “Watching the film, he got shots out of their offense and he knocked them down. The bad thing about it was we kept missing assignments and giving him open shots. That’s what we’ve got to work on.”
Those momentary defensive lapses allowed Frazier to score a career-high 37 points. His 37 points were the highest individual effort by a Southeastern Conference player this season, and the most by a Georgia player in 23 years. The effort also helped him average 24 points for the week (two victories) and earn SEC Player of the Week honors.
For MSU (9-10, 2-4 SEC), the lapses were an anomaly. The Bulldogs are fourth in the SEC in points allowed per game (60.2) and are allowing the fewest rebounds in the SEC (30.3). MSU’s strengths on defense have made up for its lack of firepower. MSU averages a league-worst 60.2 points per game.
Against Georgia, that defensive prowess was missing. Ray believes he knows why.
“They had most of their points, at least Frazier did, against our zone,” Ray said. “I think what happens is guys tend to relax in the zone, take it easy a little bit, and before you know it, you’ve missed your assignment and a guy gets a wide-open shot. We have to really re-evaluate and look at what we are doing in that zone to see where the problem lies.”
MSU will have to make that adjustment quickly. On the heels of the loss to Georgia comes MSU’s annual trip to Ole Miss. Ray, in his third season at MSU, is 0-2 in Oxford.
“That was just one of those days,” said MSU point guard I.J. Ready, who guarded Frazier down the stretch. “We have talked about it, we’ve worked on it. I think we’ve been playing a lot better lately, and hopefully we can get back to that Wednesday night.”
To do that, MSU’s defense will have to address its defensive issues after Frazier exceeded his scoring average (9.3) by 28 points.
In Ole Miss, MSU will meet an opponent with plenty of firepower from outside. Guard Stefan Moody and swingman LaDarius White rank in the top 10 of the SEC in 3-point marksmanship. Moody, who averages a team-best 15.1 points per game, leads Ole Miss with 40 3-pointers, while White, a senior, is second in the league in 3-point shooting percentage (46 percent).
That scoring punch is a big reason Ole Miss (12-7, 3-3) is in consideration for a bid to the NCAA tournament.
“Their personnel has changed,” Ray said. “But even without (guard Marshall Henderson), they still do a lot of the same stuff offensively with Moody, and then they have Jarvis Summers, who is one of the best players in the SEC.”
The challenge of slowing an offense that averages 74.2 points means changing the approach from last Saturday, but Ray said he doesn’t know if that means MSU will abandon its zone and play man-to-man defense.
“That’s something we will look at,” Ray said. “If we decide we are more comfortable in man, if we can’t carry out our assignments in the zone, then yes, we will look to play man defense more often.”
For Ray and his players, the frustrating part of the defensive letdown against Frazier was that it slowed the came in the team’s best stretch in weeks. Starting with a 74-70 loss at Texas A&M and continuing through SEC wins against Vanderbilt and Auburn, MSU looked more like the team that started the season 5-0 and less like the one that went 1-6 in December. It started with defense.
“That’s what we take pride in, what I take pride in especially,” said MSU guard Fred Thomas during the two-game run. “Even if we are not playing well offensively, defense never slumps, and it’s something we can control. We’ve been a good defensive team this year even in some of our losses.”
MSU likely will need to return to deliver a stronger defensive effort if it is going to win in Oxford for the first time in four seasons.
“It’s like life and death to the fans,” said Ready when asked of the importance of the rivalry in the state. “This rivalry is ridiculous. I love it. I’m a Mississippi State man until I die.”
While MSU has improved in January, Ray feels like his team can use its defense to continue to improve and turn the corner. The key is avoiding defensive lapses that allow players like Frazier to deliver career days.
“I think our team is making strides,” Ray said. “It’s important to get our guys to understand this is a process and every step is important. When we have moments like Saturday, in a game that wasn’t a win, it’s important to go back and look at film to see what went wrong and fix it. Anyone who watches can see we are improving. But it is important to us, to this community, that we continue getting better.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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