Coming off its first SEC loss against Alabama, the Mississippi State men’s basketball team hopes to get back on track with a win at Tennessee this Saturday.
The Vols are currently 8-7 and are coming off of a 10-point loss to Kentucky. The Orange and White are led by Jordan McRae, who is averaging almost 14 points a game this season.
MSU first-year head coach Rick Ray said he understands the lack of depth his team has, but he must find a balance for his players for the rest of the week.
“With the way the schedule is, it’s a quick turnaround, and I know I can’t go too hard (Thursday), but we still have to address the problems at hand,” Ray said “So, there will most definitely be a  mix of mental and physical preparation over the next two days.”
Despite State winning the last 12 of 15 games against the Crimson Tide, turnovers and the physical defense of Alabama helped the Tide overtake State 75-43 Wednesday night.
Junior guard Jalen Steele, coming off a career-high game in which he scored 21 points against Georgia, said Alabama  made the Dogs play a lot faster style of basketball than they wanted.
“Yeah, we were playing too fast. We should have just slowed it down, but the pressure caused us to continuously throw the ball away,” Steele said. “This game seemed like lots of stuff was going wrong at the wrong times.”
Along with the lack of depth and experience, the Bulldogs could not get it going on offense as they shot 16-45 from the floor and racked up 21 turnovers on the night.
Though the Tide was without junior point guard Trevor Releford, Bama did not struggle offensively, including scoring 38 points inside the paint. The Tide also took advantage of the opportunities the Dogs gave them, scoring 25 points off turnovers.
Freshman guard Fred Thomas said things were not working on offense, and the guys were not taking quality shots. Thomas, who averages 10 points per game, is starting to see a big role in MSU’s lineup with everything going on this season.
“We were taking quick shots and not using the clock at all. We also weren’t looking inside as much as we needed to,” Thomas said. “Everything seemed so rushed. Next game we have to take care of the ball better and get it inside.”
The Bulldogs, who have been dealing with injuries all year long (losing freshmen Andre Applewhite and Jacoby Davis with ACL injuries and senior forward Wendell Lewis with a fractured patella) hope to get back to the winning side Saturday at Tennessee. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m., and the SEC Network will televise the game.