Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray knows he can toss the game film of his team’s victory against Ole Miss earlier this month in the trash.
Ray will have to devise a new game plan because senior guard Marshall Henderson will be back for the Rebels when the teams face off at 3 p.m. Saturday (WCBI) at Tad Smith Coliseum.
“It’s completely different because they’re a different team with Marshall Henderson playing,” Ray said Wednesday after an 82-76 home victory against Auburn.
Fourteen days after beating Ole Miss 76-72 on Jan. 11 in Starkville, the return of Henderson, the Southeastern Conference’s leading scorer means a lot of things Ole Miss will try to do on offense will change.
After trying to be more laid back and less emotional on the court, Henderson told reporters after an overtime victory against LSU that he’s “going back to being me,” which likely means the return of one of college basketball’s most polarizing players.
“My interpretation is he’s going to play with emotion,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “But he’s played with emotion in all the games he’s played well and we’ve won just like the game against LSU. I just think it means he’s going to play with a sense of urgency that all seniors should play with.”
Ray isn’t worried about Henderson’s antics. Instead, he said Wednesday he’ll focus on what makes guarding Henderson so tough.
“Marshall Henderson is an elite shooter and there may not be a better shooter off the cuts he makes in the country, so that will be pose a big problem,” Ray said.
Henderson leads Ole Miss (13-5, 4-1 SEC) in scoring (18.7 points per game) and the league in 3-pointers per game (4.33). Henderson has hit a 3-pointer in a school record 51-straight games. He is the fourth player in school history to join the 1,000-point club in two seasons.
“One of the things that has happened for us is the guy guarding Henderson has come looking at me saying he needs a rest because he’s chasing Marshall Henderson off all these screens and cuts,” Ray said. “I’m looking at our player saying, ‘Marshall Henderson has made those same hard cuts and he’s not tired, why are you?’ ”
Henderson broke his school record with 10 3-pointers vs. No. 13 Oregon en route to a career-high 39 points in the loss earlier this season. He has hit a 3-pointer in every game of his Ole Miss career. Henderson’s shooting prowess likely will force MSU (13-5, 3-2) to revise its plan of using more 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone defenses because he can shoot over the top of the defenses.
“You have to be aware that anywhere he catches the basketball he’ll be in a position to shoot it and make it so defensively it’s a challenge,” Ray said. “What it basically does is turns his guy into somebody that isn’t able to be help defender because you just can’t leave a shooter like Marshall Henderson and recover fast enough.”
Craig Sword leads MSU in scoring at 14.5 ppg., while Gavin Ware is close behind averaging 11.1. Ware leads the team in rebounding (8.4 per game). However, the duo only provided 10 points against Auburn, as MSU received 28 bench points, including an extraordinary five minutes from Columbus native Tyson Cunningham.
“I am happy with how we handled adversity tonight,” Ray said. “We have played two games without our best passer and decision-maker (IJ Ready), and then tonight we had two starters with foul trouble (Gavin Ware and Craig Sword).”
Ready’s status hasn’t changed since he suffered a concussion Jan. 15 at Alabama.
Beyond Henderson, MSU’s success will be determined by its ability to score at the basket against the league’s most feared interior defense. Ole Miss leads the SEC and is third in the nation with 7.1 blocked shots per game. Junior forward Aaron Jones averages 2.8 blocks per game and will be tested against the dribble penetration of Sword and sophomore guard Fred Thomas. In the win at Humphrey Coliseum, MSU 42 free throws. It duplicated that success Wednesday, hitting 31 of 43 from the free throw line, including a 10-of-16 night from junior forward Roquez Johnson.
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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