STARKVILLE — Ben Howland is aware of what kind of team he is going to have this season.
The Mississippi State basketball coach didn’t shy away from it either. In his opening statement on the summer Southeastern Conference teleconference Monday, Howland uttered the phrase, “we’re a very, very young team.”
And young they are. With five players — Gavin Ware, Craig Sword, Fred Thomas, Johnny Zuppardo and Travis Daniels — graduating in May, there aren’t many upperclassmen. Howland will rely on a small nucleus of returning players and a deeply talented freshmen class.
“We’ve got a huge changeover,” Howland said. “We’re going to a team that’s going to have a lot of inexperience. But I’m really excited about these young freshmen though and their enthusiasm, how hard they’re working since they arrived.”
Many of the returning players and freshmen are on campus now and have been since the first summer term started in early June. The players are taking classes and working on their games, something that will help them come winter. The Bulldogs will also take a trip to Italy and Switzerland Aug. 2-14.
With the trip to Europe, MSU will get 10 days of practice in July — something that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the trip — to get ready. Howland is happy about the trip, but more so for the practices.
“We’ll really utilize those hours to be able to spend time with them; working on their shooting, working on their ball-handling, giving them things, even when we’re not with them, they can work on on their own, as well as doing 5-on-5 stuff, putting in fastbreak, and working on our defense and some of the schemes that we will use. Hopefully that carries over into the season,” Howland said.
Howland and his coaching staff get eight hours a week to work with their players. But only two of those can be spent in the gym. Howland would like to see that increase to four or five hours.
The second-year coach, who has never been to Europe, is looking forward to the trip in all aspects.
“We’ll get to know one another and to get a head start on what we’re trying to do in terms of our scheme offensively and defensively and just work on fundamentals,” Howland said. “It will also be a great bonding experience and an opportunity to go over to Europe and play against some teams over there.”
Returning players include rising senior point guard I.J. Ready and rising sophomores Quinndary Weatherspoon and Aric Holman. Weatherspoon was third on the team last season averaging 12.0 points per game. Ready averaged 9.2 points, while Holman averaged 1.9 points in 21 games.
Louisiana Tech transfer and rising sophomore Xavian Stapleton will be eligible this season. He sat out last season after transferring.
The Bulldogs did lose highly-talented guard Malik Newman. The Jackson native, who was expected to be a one-and-done player and go in the National Basketball Association Draft, decided to transfer after one season. That opens up one more roster spot, but Howland doesn’t know what he is going to do with it.
“It’s late, so there are not a lot of players that are floating around,” Howland said. “If there is someone we feel like we can get involved with that would be good for our program, otherwise, we’ll just play with 12 guys this year and save that one for the following year. So it’s really up in the air.”
Of the seven players signed in the 2016 recruiting class, six are already on campus. They include four-star forward Mario Kegler, four-star center Schnider Herard, four-star guard Eli Wright, four-star guard Lamar Peters, four-star guard and Starkville High School standout Tyson Carter and three-star forward E.J. Datcher.
The only freshmen not on campus is three-star center Abdul Ado. Howland said there are issues with his transcript, but he expects Ado on campus when the second summer term starts July 5.
Although they are young, Howland is excited about the future. He is excited about this season and seasons to come at MSU.
“I love our freshmen class,” Howland said. “We need to have another good class to really build the foundation for the future for this coming year. We’ll try to sign three more players.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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