Coaches like to use the term “work in progress” when their team is adding new pieces to the puzzle and figuring out what works best for the team. Most of the time in college hoops, you see that phrase tossed around during November and December as teams work the kinks out.
Rick Stansbury is operating under a different timetable this year.
With Dee Bost getting back to form in his first three games back from suspension and recently suspended forward Renardo Sidney showing flashes of why he was such a highly touted recruit, Stansbury’s team is still under construction in mid-January.
The first signs of progress came last week with a 69-64 win at Ole Miss, where Sidney tallied 24 points, followed by a trouncing of Auburn three days later.
“Getting Dee back and getting Sid back, they never came to practice even after that first loss [at Alabama] with bad attitudes or a lack of work ethic,” Stansbury said. “We had some of our best practices after that.”
Conditioning has been a concern for Sidney since he came to MSU in the fall of 2009, and many wondered how long it would take Bost to return to form. Stansbury has switched from his usual man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone so his players can conserve energy on the defensive end of the court.
Bost is no stranger to playing lots of minutes every game after averaging 34.9 minutes per game last year, but he admits he is not completely back in that kind of shape.
“Truth be told, I try to come out of the game sometimes, but [Stansbury] doesn’t want to take me out,” Bost said.
Playing 36 minutes in the game against Ole Miss, Bost made a statement by scoring 25 points and dishing out eight assists. He said he is “one or two games, if that” away from putting up the numbers he would like to see.
Stansbury is hoping reserve guard Brian Bryant will be able to contribute productive minutes to give Bost some rest. Bryant is averaging 6.4 points per game, but has only scored two points since Bost has returned to the lineup.
The return of Bost and Sidney has helped unify a team that has had one very public fight and seen two players transfer since the season started, according to freshman Jalen Steele.
“Since Dee has been back and Renardo is getting his game back, everybody has been coming as one,” Steele said. “We finally got our pieces that we need to go deep in SEC play.”
If there is one player who has the “work in progress” line used to describe him more than any other, it is Sidney. Stansbury has said all season that it will take time for Sidney to be in the kind of shape he needs to be in, but now that Sidney has gained three games worth of SEC experience, there are visible improvements.
“To his credit, he’s taken small steps,” Stansbury said. “There’s no better substitute for experience, him being able to see what he didn’t do and showing that to him.”
After six non-conference losses put the Bulldogs in a big hole going into SEC play, Stansbury said the wins over Ole Miss and Auburn have given the team new hope. The Bulldogs will need more than just hope when they play three games in seven days against quality SEC East teams Georgia, Vanderbilt and Florida, starting Saturday.
“Everybody has a little hope now,” Stansbury said. “Just looking at us differently. I understand where our team is, where it was, what it is now and what I think it can still be. Only time is going to heal some of those things. The more we play together, the better we will become.”
Saturday’s game against Georgia will be the fourth game in a row with the same starting lineup, something that hasn’t happened since November. If this lineup can make it through the upcoming stretch playing like it did against Ole Miss and Auburn, the “under construction” sign might soon be lifted off Stansbury’s team.