STARKVILLE — Mississippi State certainly knows how to defend the offense they will see this afternoon.
It’s the offensive philosophy that the Bulldogs attempted to win games with the past two seasons — run and gun.
Troy University (4-3) will walk into the Humphrey Coliseum for its non-conference contest as the nation’s top three-point shooting team, making 12 from beyond the arc per game, and boasting two of the best guards in the Sun Belt Conference in R.J. Scott and Will Weathers, who are each averaging 25.9 points per game.
Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. today from the Humphrey Coliseum. The contest will be televised regionally by SportSouth.
“First off, they’re a very dangerous team,” MSU head coach Rick Stansbury said. “Any time you shoot the ball like that, you’re a dangerous basketball team. Shooting it has nothing to do with size. The (lack of) size is their advantage offensively for them. When they make shots, that’s what makes them so dangerous.”
When Stansbury coached the No. 18 Bulldogs (8-1) the past two years with spot-up shooters on the roster like guards Ravern Johnson, Riley Benock and forward Kodi Augustus, Mississippi State averaged over 20 three-point shot attempts per game. However, with more all-around guards that can get in the lane to score or get fouled, MSU has only 20 more attempts beyond the three-point arc in three games during the 2011-12 campaign.
“We are going to have to shoot well and not let them get comfortable on their home court,” Troy coach Don Maestri said in the Troy Messenger. “They are very aggressive and play tough basketball.”
MSU may rely on junior forward Arnett Moultrie after the University of Texas at El Paso transfer had 21 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year in a 75-62 victory over West Virginia last weekend.
The Memphis native is second on the team and fourth in the Southeastern Conference with his 16.7 average, while his 11.1 boards are tops in the league. The key for Moultrie, the former 6-foot-1 guard in high school, is his ability to guard a smaller player out on the perimeter.
“Arnett’s a guy that can step out and guard a 6-3 guy out on that perimeter some,” Stansbury said. “He’s just not a liability out there. We have enough versatility in some spots that gives us the opportunity to do that.”
The uniqueness of college basketball being a two-semester sport allows for head-scratching upsets to happen right around this time of the season with players finishing up final exams around practice time. Four teams in the Associated Press Top 20 — Alabama, Vanderbilt, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati — have already lost games to unranked foes and MSU’s 14-year veteran coach hopes he has a more mature team that can handle being a strong favorite against a lower-level opponent.
“You just hope you’re mature enough and understand enough, and you understand every day what’s at hand,” Stansbury said. “You can’t be looking forward and you can’t be looking back. Is it always easy to do? No. It’s human nature. That’s just human nature. There are some games that are magnified more than others in kids’ minds.”
Dee Bost leads MSU with his 17.0 scoring clip, while his 2.8 steals lead the SEC. Bost was on the bench last year when Troy took MSU to overtime while serving his 14-game suspension for failing to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft deadline.
“I feel like last year we relied on the three a lot, but this year we have more guys that can do different things,” Bost said after the West Virginia win Saturday. “We also have a lot of guys that can get to the rim and we can feed it to the post. We have more weapons so we don’t have to rely on our three point game. It takes pressure off of me having more guys that can dribble.”
After today, the Bulldogs are back in action on Tuesday against Florida Atlantic in an 8 p.m. showdown on CSS.
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