The Mississippi State basketball team held a scrimmage Saturday at 3 p.m. at Humphrey Coliseum. The intrasquad scrimmage consisted of a full 40-minute game, followed by two 10-minute situation games. “Basically, it was an opportunity to get the players out here and give the fans an opportunity to see some of our players since we weren’t able to have Midnight Madness,” head coach Rick Stansbury said. “It is a measuring stick for us. We can watch some film and go back now and show them (the team) some things.”
“I think it (the scrimmage) went pretty well,” sophomore Mario Austin said. “It was just a scrimmage to see where our team stands so far and really just to work on our fundamentals and skills that we’ve been working on in practice.
“It was just something to let the people know that we have been working really hard in the off-season trying to get ready for the upcoming season.”
“It went better than I expected,” senior Guy Gardner said. “There was a lot of turnovers, but we have not even scrimmaged yet. Offensively, everybody played well; of course, we have a lot of work to do on defense.”
Some of the players who stood out statistically during the scrimmage were sophomore Timmy Bowers (32 points), Austin (28 points) and senior Michael Gholar (21 points). Junior Derrick Zimmerman finished with 19 points and freshman Winsome Frazier had 18 points. Junior Michael Ignerski recorded a double-double with 10 rebounds and 15 points.
“I don’t know about on the court, but off the court this team is a lot closer,” Gardner said. “We have taken on the attitude that it is sort of us against the world. Everybody is predicting us to finish last, but we believe in ourselves, and we are just going to stick together this year. There won’t be any inside fighting like last year.”
“I think right now, as a team, we are more together,” Austin said. “We kind of know what guys are going to work hard and guys that are not going to give up on us. We had some guys give up on us (last season), but that is the past. You have got to look forward to this year and just work harder and harder so we can have a good season this year.”
“I think this team has more basketball skill (than last year’s team),” Stansbury said. “We really pass the ball better, and I really like our chemistry. This team likes each other better.
“We have some size. We have a different mixture. I think our basketball skills are better and our team chemistry is so much better,” Stansbury said.
“We are going to sit down and talk about goals, but like always, you want your team to work every day, preparing themselves to be the best they can be. Whatever that limit is, as long as you work as hard as you can work and reach your limit, then everybody can be satisfied with that.”
“One of our goals is to not lose any games here at home and to try this year to at least crack the top-25,” Austin said. “We want to work hard as a team and take this team on to the NCAA Tournament.