With basketball season approaching, the Mississippi State men’s team will be different in almost every phase to what it has been the past few seasons as the Dogs usher in a new era under new head coach Rick Ray.
In his first job as a head coach, Ray was hired to replace Rick Stansbury, who decided to resign after a disappointing season last year when the year ended with the Bulldogs losing in the first round of the N.I.T. tournament. Also, all five of the starters from last season are gone, so this year’s team will feature five new starters, five freshmen and only two seniors.
Ray said he believes lack of experience could play a huge role in what happens this season for the Bulldogs.
“Lack of experience is going to be a huge deal. We basically just got a new team as only a couple of guys on this team have any real experience playing D1 basketball,” Ray said. “What we’re trying to do in practice right now to counter that is to play a lot of games and put them in game-like situations to get them used to making decisions in tough situations.”
MSU’s lack of experience was on display Sunday when State played William Carey in an exhibition game, which the Dogs won 80-74. While the Dogs came away with the win, the game was not pretty as State struggled at times against a less talented and smaller William Carey team.
MSU’s youth was on full display as the team committed 16 turnovers. Another area of concern after the scrimmage was rebounding. The Bulldogs gave up 12 offensive rebounds to a team over which State had a significant size advantage, which does not bode well for when MSU plays bigger and better teams.
After the game, junior guard Jalen Steele said the team had to improve on rebounding.
“We’ve got work on our rebounding. We need everyone crashing the boards,” Steele said.
Freshman Fred Thomas was one of the leading scorers in the scrimmage with 15 points in his first collegiate action. From the looks of this game he is going to be a guy State depends on for buckets, and he is not afraid to shoot it, leading the team in shot attempts with 14.
Thomas said he is a confident player who will take shots when he is open.
“Sometimes some of my shots are bad shots, so my coaches are really trying to work with me on my shot selection,” Thomas said.
State also struggled on the defensive end as the team allowed 76 points, a lot coming in the paint.
Ray said he is concerned about his defense.
“We’ve got to be the more aggressive team, and tonight (Sunday) I don’t think we were the more aggressive team,” Ray said.
For the exhibition game, Ray went with a starting lineup of Craig Sword at point guard, Jalen Steele at shooting guard, Fred Thomas at small forward, Roquez Johnson at power forward and Wendell Lewis at center. However, Ray said he is still undecided on a permanent lineup.
“I really don’t get too concerned right now with who’s starting and who’s not,” Ray said. “With the rotation we have right now, everyone is going to get to play.”
With Friday’s first game at Troy approaching, Ray and his players are continuing to get a feel for the game and learn how to play together.