STARKVILLE — Mississippi State has the same issue as their opponent in the Southeastern Conference home opener for the Bulldogs men’s basketball program.
The basic question of both MSU and Tennessee as both enter the Humphrey Coliseum tonight (8 p.m., ESPN2) is essentially, will the opener last weekend be a trend or something their fans forget quickly?
The Vols are coming off their 67-56 upset of No. 19 Florida on Saturday.
“First off, they are very good,” Stansbury said Tuesday of Tennessee. “Anytime you do to Florida what they did to Florida, you know they are very good. They’ve got a good balance of inside and outside. They’ve got some veterans and some guys that have been around. They are going to get after you defensively and play extremely hard.”
Volunteers head coach Cuonzo Martin brings a more half-court defensive philosophy by being an East St. Louis native that played for former Purdue coach Gene Keady with the Boilermakers and then spent eight seasons as an assistant on the Purdue bench before he averaged 20 wins per season at Missouri State.
Martin is still learning how to incorporate the Volunteers new style with the athletes recruited by former coach Bruce Pearl that cause havoc and turnovers to led to easy baskets.
“We played hard (against Florida) competed, got the ball inside, made big plays and more than anything sustained the blows,” Martin said. “They are the type of team that even on our scouting report can rail off 12 quick points on you in transition, shooting threes, attacking the rim. We did a really good job of slowing those guys down and making them work for catches. Extending their offense was probably the best effort all season, switching the ball screens and making them make adjustments. It was a great team effort as well as the atmosphere.”
On the offensive end, the Vols are led in scoring by sophomore guard Trae Golden (14.6 points per game) and junior forward Jeronne Maymon (11.2 ppg). However, Tennessee has already suffered disappointing home losses to Austin Peay and Pittburgh because of their inability to avoid long scoring droughts.
“Really it’s a different ball game on the road, especially in the first 10 minutes of the game,” Martin said. “You have to set the tone, how you play, you have to move the ball. At home, it is one or two passes and a shot; on the road, it is maybe four or five passes and really executing your offense to make those guys work. Most home teams run off rhythm, they play off runs, quick shots, transition baskets, so we really have to make those guys bog down and defend for a long time.”
Mississippi State returns home still trying to figure out how Arkansas was able to nearly score 100 points in a 40-minute game on a defense that had only given up more than 70 once this season.
“I’m not going to panic on the Arkansas game,” MSU coach Rick Stansbury said Tuesday. “It is just different and there is no way you can simulate it in practice. You’ve got to give them credit because they made shots, they made shots. They made shots in a lot of different ways with a lot of different people. You’ve got to give credit for us playing the way we played, it wasn’t all us.”
One of the interesting elements to the matchup tonight is Martin will be the 35th different coach in the SEC to face a Stansbury-coached MSU squad since the Bulldogs 14-year veteran took the job in 1998. The matchup will be the first between the two men with neither being on opposite benches even as assistant coaches.
“There are only so many ways you can put the ball in the hoop,” Stansbury said. ” I think different coaches take different things and adjust to it to their personnel. But I don’t know if there is any coach out there that has a something just totally different than no other coach has done or seen.”
The Bulldogs are 11-2 in SEC home openers under Stansbury and will have Alabama less than 48 hours later in Starkville in a quick turnaround at 3 p.m. Saturday.
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