Examining how Tuesday's Kentucky-Mississippi State game is a 'clash of styles'

On3’s Bracketologist James Fletcher III joined Andy Staples On3 on YouTube with the show’s namesake to discuss Tuesday’s SEC clash between Mississippi State and Kentucky.

Evidently, Fletcher believes it should be an awesome game between the two 19-8 squads, as he made sense of the way the matchup will shakeout on Tuesday.

“I think it’s going to be really fun,” Fletcher stated. “A real clash of styles, too. Mississippi State has no interest in sprinting up and down the floor for 40 minutes. They want to get the ball inside to Tolu Smith. They want to use Cam Matthews, D.J. Jeffries. They want to be physical, in the way that they play. So it’s going to be a really interesting matchup, to see can Kentucky either, just outrun them. Because that’s what they ultimately did to Alabama.

“Alabama, a team that wants to run too, but they really just got out and played such a fast pace, and were just flying up and down the floor. Alabama really fell into the trap I think, of playing so fast that they weren’t worried of what shot they were getting. By the time they looked up, it was already well out of hand. There was no way to come back into that game.”

One player Fletcher is keeping an eye on is Kentucky star Rob Dillingham. Fletcher believes he could be one of the Wildcats main reasons for making a run in the NCAA Tournament, but he has some growing to do over the next couple of weeks.

“You talked about the Rob Dillingham situation,” Fletcher started. “I think it’s so interesting for Kentucky, because he is their best NBA player. Their best NBA prospect. Their best offensive player. You saw what he was able to do on that final shot against LSU. I mean, that’s an NBA level play. That is the play that you want to win a basketball game. The only problem is, he did it with 15 seconds left on the clock. There was no need for him to shoot it that early. It kind of goes into this narrative around Rob Dillingham, that it’s just these little things, whether it’s the situational awareness, or the overall defense, because the defense just is not at the level that John Calipari needs it to be to keep him on the floor for an entire basketball game. He struggles on defense. You saw it in that next possession.

“LSU puts up a shot, Dillingham sees the ball, he sees that it’s blocked. He heads out the other direction. … There’s two seconds left. Even if your man is 30 feet from the basket, there’s no need to go run the other way. So for him to run away from the play, his man gets the rebound, puts it back in, you lose the game. It’s just brutal. He admitted it. He knows. It’s not like Rob Dillingham is some player who just can’t accept his actions, doing his own thing. He wants to learn. He wants to grow, and I think that there’s room for him to grow. The question is, can he grow enough between now and the end of March, to where Kentucky can become a real Final Four contender, with him on the floor for 30-35 minutes.”

Perhaps tonight could be the start of a special run for Rob Dillingham and Kentucky. We’ll see if the Wildcats are able to get a home victory over Mississippi State on Tuesday.