Rick Ray samples his first taste of rivalry action Wednesday when the Bulldogs travel to Oxford to take on No. 23 Ole Miss.
But Ray said this game will be more about MSU growing as a team than the rivalry between the teams or fan bases.
“I think guys understand the importance of a rivalry, but you’ve also got to break things down as far as how you execute throughout the course of the game,” Ray said. “I’m going to work on giving our guys a way to win the ballgame. If you just put it on emotion, then if you don’t have emotion and things don’t go well, where do you turn? So you better have a way as far as X’s and O’s and the way you’re going to execute to actually try to win the ballgame.”
The Rebels own the highest scoring offense in the SEC, averaging 79.2 points per game compared to State’s 61 points per game, which is third worst in the conference. Marshall Henderson leads the Rebels and the league, averaging 21.8 points per game.
In addition to that, the Rebels are second in the league in scoring margin at +13.5, while the Dogs are last at -5.2.
Ray said his players cannot give Henderson any space because he may shoot at any time.
“I think the thing that makes Marshall Henderson effective is his ability to cut. There’s very few people in college basketball who can make shots off the cut.,” Ray said. “He’s a confident guy. He’s gonna take some bad shots, but he also makes bad shots.”
After winning its first two league games, State has dropped its last six games with tough road tests coming up. The Dogs’ lack of scoring shows in the league standings where they are last in field goal percentage and three-point percentage.
Saturday against LSU, State opened up a 14-point halftime lead but shot about 20 percent worse in the second half than it did in the first, whereas the Tigers shot about 25 percent better in the second half.
Tiger guard Anthony Hickey hit a runner in the lane with less than two seconds left to put the Tigers up by one and seal the win. For Hickey, his clutch basket was more of the same. Last season, he made the game-winning shot in Baton Rouge in overtime to beat MSU by two.
Hickey gave head coach Johnny Jones the credit and said the Tigers had been working on last-second plays since the South Carolina game.
“He (Jones) just told me to get to the rack. I usually settle for the jump shot but I drove in for a change,” Hickey said. “(The defense) flattened out. If they would have sucked in, I would have made the pass. I was confident, and they were confident in me.”
For MSU, free throws were the deciding factor, though. State missed 10 of its last 13 free throws and shot just 48.1 percent from the line throughout the game, the same percentage the Dogs shot from the field.
Freshman Gavin Ware led the Dogs with 14 points and seven rebounds. Ware went up against 6’9″ Johnny O’Bryant of LSU, which posed a good test before he faces 6’9″ senior Reginald Buckner and 6’7″ Murphy Holloway of Ole Miss.
Ware said the team cannot throw the game away by missing free throws and must practice with more intensity to simulate the second half of games.
“It just felt like a fairy tale. We worked so hard in practice and the first half, that in the second half to just give it away is just unacceptable,” Ware said. “We can’t back down from it (game against Ole Miss Wednesday); we just gotta carry on what we’ve been doing and keep getting better each and every day and just play.”
Ware’s battle with Buckner and Holloway will play a big factor on the boards as Ole Miss is second in the league averaging 14.6 offensive rebounds per game, but State is No. 11 in the SEC only averaging 22.9 defensive rebounds per game. Buckner and Holloway are in the top four in the league in offensive rebounding, as well.
Ray said after dropping six straight SEC games, he is not worried about his team’s mindset heading into games at Ole Miss and Florida.
“All road games are tough first and foremost regardless of the opponent. I think if we do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be fine. I’m not worried about our mentality, we just have to go play basketball,” Ray said. “If you start focusing in on the little things, then you get the whole part, but you start looking at things it’s too encompassing worrying about the whole.”