With the 2011-2012 basketball season right around the corner, this year’s Mississippi State squad remains an enigma. Renardo Sidney and Arnett Moultrie are two major reasons State fans and the media are taking a wait-and-see approach to this year’s edition of the Bulldogs.
No one questions Sidney or Moultrie’s abilities, but there are many people who are anxious to see if the players who will be charged with anchoring a talented MSU frontcourt will live up to their considerable hype. For Sidney, this may be his last shot at proving he can still become the player he was expected to be upon graduating from high school. As for Moultrie, he has to prove to some skeptical fans the praise being heaped upon him by coaches and members of the media is warranted.
Sidney’s on and off the court struggles are well-documented and do not need to be rehashed, but Sidney and MSU head coach Rick Stansbury agree the talented yet mercurial Sidney has made significant progress since last season.
“Sid’s not perfect yet, but he has made a lot of headway,”Stansbury said. “I think every part of his game has gotten better. The biggest thing is he has been the most coachable he has ever been. For the most part, he has been a good teammate. Conditioning is a work in progress. Is it better than it was? It is. Is it perfect? It’s not.”
Sidney agrees he has come a long way since his arrival at MSU.
“I’m so proud of myself, man,”Sidney said. “I don’t think I missed a conditioning drill this year, and last year I missed five or six because I had excuses.”
Much of Sidney’s improvements can be attributed to working with former NBA player and renowned trainer John Lucas over the summer in Houston.
“He (John Lucas) just sat me down and talked to me every day,”Sidney said.”I had a lot of counselors down there, and it was a good thing that every day he had me talk to a counselor and express my feelings. They taught me to keep my anger inside and count to 10. I’m not crazy, but sometimes I just get overheated.”
Moultrie is in a different boat than Sidney. After transferring from UTEP where he was a solid player in his two years there, he is being counted on to have a breakout year after being forced to sit out last year to NCAA rules regarding transfers.
Stansbury thinks Moultrie has the potential to make a huge difference for this year’s team.
“Arnett stands out as a noticeable difference. He is a guy that is just different than anybody we had last year,”Stansbury said. “One of his greatest abilities is that every time the ball is shot he is going to try and go get his hands on it. He is athletic; he has a good body and can run. I think one of his greatest strengths is his versatility.”
Moultrie thinks playing alongside Sidney will open up opportunities for both of them as it will keep defenders from concentrating on stopping only one post player.
“He can do a lot of stuff offensively, and so can I. Coach has put in a lot of ball screens for us to do; a lot of high and low, too,”Moultrie said. “I think we are both going to be playing inside out. That’s just how the offense is.”
If Moultrie and Sidney play up to their potential, the Bulldog’s frontcourt could be one of the best in the nation. For all the grief Sidney caught last year, he still managed to average 14.2 points and 7.6 rebounds a gamein 2011. An in-shape and motivated Sidney could prove a nightmare for opposing coaches. When you combine Sidney’s goal of averaging a double-double this year along with Moultrie’s goal of averaging double-digit rebounds, MSU’s frontcourt could be the most dominant it has been since Charles “Chuck Nasty”Rhodes and Jarvis “Swat”Varnado were patrolling the paint. This is not lost upon Moultrie or Sidney, either.
“I can’t wait. We have a good chance to do something special this year,”Moultrie said. “We got a lot of talent. It just matters how hard we play.”
Sidney said he expects big things from the duo and the team this year.
“I love this team,”Sidney said. “The way we are going right now, it is like we are ready to have a big year. To me it is like a fairytale, because I lived the horror last year, and we haven’t had any arguments; we are close. I just think we will have a great year.”