5 things to know about the Mississippi State Bulldogs

1. Sophomore studs

The offensive attack for Mississippi State is centered around their two star sophomore guards, Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr, who combine for nearly 37 points per game this year. Molinar starts at the point, standing at 6’3″ and 190 pounds. He leads the team in scoring at 18.7 points per game and assists at 3.7 per game. He also grabs 4 rebounds and swipes a team-leading 1.3 steals per contest. Molinar is very effective on the offensive end, as he can score from anywhere on the floor and doesn’t typically force the issue. He’s shooting almost 78% from the free throw line, almost 52% from the field, and has made 14 of 27 attempted threes for almost 52%.

Rounding out the backcourt is two-guard, D.J. Stewart Jr, who measures at 6’6″ and 205 pounds. Second on the team in scoring, Stewart Jr averages 18.2 points, to go along with 3.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists on the year. He does have an issue with giving the ball up too often, with just under 3 turnovers per game so far this season. Stewart Jr shoots 47.5% from three, but only 58.6% on his free throw attempts. The redshirt sophomore can get a little trigger happy, taking more than 15 shots per game, but Kentucky will need to make sure they force contested shots to avoid easy and early scores from Stewart Jr. He scored 15 points, but fouled out against Kentucky last year.

2. Big men in the middle

While Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr take care of the bulk of the scoring in the backcourt for Mississippi State, the Bulldogs do start two solid bigs in the frontcourt as well. The two starting post players for Ben Howland’s squad are 6’10” – 245lb Tolu Smith and 6’11” – 255lb Abdul Ado. A very strong offensive rebounding team, Mississippi State gets over six offensive rebounds per game from their two starting bigs. The Bulldogs also bring in more size off the bench, in the form of 6’7″ Cameron Matthews, 6’9″ Javian Davis, and 7’0″ Quenton Post.

Tolu Smith is the third leg to the offensive attack for Mississippi State, as he scores 13.1 points per game so far this year. He leads the team in rebounding at 8.6, with four of those coming on the offensive end, and blocks one shot per game. Efficient from the field at over 57%, but doesn’t have a big perimeter game. Abdul Ado isn’t as big of an offensive threat as Smith, but the senior is strong on both the glass and on the defensive end. He averages 5.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in under 25 minutes per game.

3. Free throws aren’t free points

There’s been a lot of complaining this season about Kentucky’s inability to shoot at an effective rate, and rightfully so. However, the fans in Starkville may be echoing the same sentiment, and about the free throw line specifically. The Bulldogs are a pretty solid three-point shooting team, hitting 38.3% on the season, with most of the shooting coming from three players. Take away the defender and move that shot to the charity stripe, and it is a different story completely for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs hit just 59.3% of their free throws, which ranks 319th out of 330 teams in the country.

Mississippi State has six players shooting less than 67% from the free throw line, four of those are shooting less than 59%, and one of those four is shooting under 50%. It isn’t a low amount of attempts that is skewing the percentages either, as the Bulldogs shoot almost 22 times per game from the free throw line, but they’re making just 12.8 of them. If Kentucky can force Mississippi State away from the three point line, with contested twos and free throws needed to win the game, it will be the best defensive strategy.

4. How was 2020?

The Mississippi State Bulldogs started the season with back to back losses, to Clemson and Liberty, but both losses came without leading scorer Iverson Molinar. They followed a three-game winning streak, defeating Texas State, North Texas, and Jackson State. Those three wins were followed up with a double overtime loss at Dayton, and then three more wins over Central Arkansas, Mississippi Valley State, and Georgia. Despite sitting at 6-3 on the year, and facing off against a 1-6 Kentucky team, the Bulldogs sit as a two-point underdog going into this evening’s game.

Part of that is probably that Vegas would think that Kentucky has played a little bit better on a game by game basis, which isn’t saying much, but incremental improvement is better than zero improvement. It also may be that people think that the Cats just HAVE to get a win at some point. But an additional point would be that Kentucky’s strength of schedule is near the top ten in the country, while Mississippi State has had a schedule that ranks up over 100 on the boards.

5. Breaking the streak

Two major losing streaks are on the line today in the Kentucky vs Mississippi State game in Starkville at Humphrey Coliseum. For Kentucky, the Cats are off to one of the worst starts in school history and can’t afford to drop a seventh game in a row. Coach Cal and company just need to get a win under their belt to start conference play to get the monkey off their back. As much as the tournament résumé needs it, the psyche of the players, Coach Cal, and the entire Big Blue Nation may need it more.

For Mississippi State, the Bulldogs have lost 14 straight games against Kentucky, which is every single game of the Coach Cal era in Lexington. The overall series sits at 91-18 in favor of the Wildcats, but the Bulldogs have had no luck in recent years of toppling the Cats. After going to overtime in both of first two match ups against Coach Cal, Mississippi State has struggled to get back to that point, as an average margin of victory sits at 12 points over the 14 games.

Go Cats. Beat Dogs.

@BrettBibbinsKSR