STARKVILLE — There’s a single problem with calling Mississippi State’s men’s basketball matchup with Florida Atlantic University a revenge game.
Nobody in MSU’s starting lineup knows what a loss to the mid-major Owls feels like. Over a calendar year ago, there sat on the bench at Humphrey Coliseum was Bulldogs star players Dee Bost, Arnett Moultrie and Renardo Sidney in street clothes.
Bost and Sidney were serving their NCAA mandated suspensions and Moultrie was sitting through his transfer season since coming over from the University of Texas El-Paso.
“We still got a point to prove no matter what or who we play,” Bost said. “It’s something that we have control over because if we keep winning, everybody will recognize us.”
All three of those players were forced to sit and watch MSU guard Brian Bryant miss the final two free throws of the game that could’ve sent the game into overtime.
“I know they are a team that got us last year in that five game stretch,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said Saturday.
Bryant will be out for the final game of his school-mandated three games. Of the nine players that played in the 61-59 loss last year to Florida Atlantic, only guard Jalen Steele and forward Wendell Lewis provided one point over 24 combined minutes on the floor.
“Yeah revenge is basically all on our minds,” Steele said. “We feel like it’s critical to get out and get this win.”
The trio of Bost, Moultrie and Sidney are averaging a combined 44.8 points and 19.8 rebounds for a MSU (9-1) team off to its best start since the 2003-04 season that saw the Bulldogs begin a perfect 13-0.
FAU (4-5) will be bringing four of five starters to Starkville from last year’s squad and are led by the guard duo of junior Greg Gantt’s (13.9 points per game) and sophomore Pablo Bertone (10.7 ppg).
“It’s difficult – period.” Jarvis said. “Those schools pay you a lot of money and they expect one thing and that’s to get a victory. That’s what they pay their money for. They don’t expect you to upset them.”
The 16th-ranked Bulldogs are going to try to replicate the offensive execution that saw them tie for the 23rd most points in school history during a 106-68 victory over Troy and marked the first time MSU scored 100-plus points since December of 2009 when it beat St. Bonaventure, 105-53.
The head coach of the Trojans, who are also part of the Sun Belt Conference, gave an insight to what Humphrey Coliseum faithful will see tonight (8 p.m., CSS) from Jarvis’ athletic bunch.
“They’re a different type team that’s so athletic boy and bigger than us so it’ll interesting how they react to these different experiences for them,” Troy coach Don Maestri said.
After tonight’s $5 deal contest, Mississippi State travels to Detroit for its first true road game of the year with tip is set for 11 a.m., Saturday.
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