STARKVILLE – All season long, Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray has wondered aloud what might have been in Bulldogs’ guard Craig Sword had been healthy all season.
After enduring offseason back surgery two weeks before the season began, Sword, MSU’s leading scorer in 2013-14, was a shell of his former self for nearly half the season, averaging just four points per game through his first nine games of the year.
But once SEC play arrived, so did Sword, as he led the Bulldogs in scoring in 12 of MSU’s 18 conference games.
“Craig has absolutely had an All-SEC season,” said Ray of Sword, the junior from Montgomery, Alabama. “Early in the season, you could tell he wasn’t himself and it hurt us as a basketball team. He wasn’t finishing early but once he got healthy, he had a special season.”
Coaches around the SEC agreed with Ray. On Tuesday, Sword was named a Second Team All-SEC performer by the league’s coaches. Not bad for a player who scored just 37 points during the non-conference portion of the Bulldogs’ schedule.
“He just means the world to this team because he’s the guy on the perimeter that the other team has to worry about,” said Ray. “He’s at the top of the scouting report. I think he’s done a really good job knowing that all eyes are on him and still coming through in each game.”
Also an All-Freshman Team selection in 2012-13, Sword made his bid to become an all-conference selection with a strong showing in the season’s second half. Five times in SEC play Sword topped the 20-point mark and he scored in double figures in 16 of MSU’s 18 league games. He scored a season-high 27 points in a 79-73 loss at Ole Miss on Jan. 28, and he scored 26 points on two occasions, the first during a road win at Tennessee, the second during a loss at South Carolina. On Feb. 25 against No. 1 Kentucky, Sword became the 34th player in school history to score at least 1,000 points for his career.
“It’s something I wanted to achieve since I came here,” said Sword. “If it didn’t happen, that would have been OK too. I just go out, play hard and do whatever I can to help my team win.”
Sword is MSU’s only representative on the Coaches All-SEC team, and he is the first Bulldog to receive All-SEC recognition since first-teamers Dee Bost and Arnett Moultrie in 2012.
The Coaches First Team included player of the year Bobby Portis of Arkansas and a pair of Kentucky Wildcats, post players Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl Anthony Towns. Ole Miss guard Stefan Moody also received First-Team honors. Rounding out the First Team was Tennessee guard Josh Richardson, forward Danuel House of Texas A&M, Vanderbilt forward Damian Jones and LSU big men Jarrell Martin and Jordan Mickey.
Heading to Nashville
While Ray’s three years have all included losing records, MSU has won a game in the SEC tournament in each of the past two seasons. Two years ago, MSU beat South Carolina and last year the Bulldogs knocked out Georgia.
To repeat that feat, the Bulldogs will have to beat Auburn for the second time this season.
The Bulldogs (13-18) earned a 71-66 win over the Tigers (12-19) on Jan. 15.
“They are a very athletic team,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “They did a good job with their speed and their effort getting us out of what we wanted to do.”
In that win, junior forward Gavin Ware paced MSU with 16 points and 17 rebounds.
“We started to really play as a team and everybody accepted their roles in that game,” said MSU senior Roquez Johnson. “I thought that game got us going a little bit.”
Indeed it did. The win snapped a 22-game road losing streak for the Bulldogs and propelled MSU to a four wins-in-six games stretch that represented two-thirds of the Bulldogs’ conference win.
Now the Bulldogs head to Nashville as the No. 12 seed, hoping to beat Auburn to get a chance at No. 5 seed Texas A&M.
“We’ve been able to get that first win in the tournament,” said Ray. “Now we have to focus on getting that second win. For us to show progress as a team, we need to do something we haven’t done yet. And winning that second game is a good place to start.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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