On paper this ought to be a bloodbath. MSU is 9-1. However, looking closer, none of their wins is impressive. They lost by 15 to Cincinnati, their only really tough opponent.

They should start 6-11, 6-10, 6-4 across the front line, and have a couple more 6-10 guys on the roster. They have four players in double figures, led by Quindary Weatherspoon at 13.9 ppg. He is a good one.

Their defense is very solid. Opponents shoot 38% overall and 31% from the arc against them. They are plus-5 on the boards. Their Achilles heel is that they cannot shoot the 3. (They are not as bad as we are, but still bad. However, they do have some gunners in Aric Holman, who has shot a sizzling 64% from the arc, and Nick Weatherspoon at 39%.

Sagarin picks MSU by 20.
RealtimeRPI has them by 27.

I'll be encouraged if we don't get blown out. Losing by 20 would be okay, if we are down 8-10 at halftime, and MissSt pulls away late. If we get down 20 in the first half, the final score is meaningless.

I figure MSU wins by as much as they want to. I would just like to see us play well. Make shots. Defend.

(12-19-2017 11:32 AM)mjs Wrote:  I'll be encouraged if we don't get blown out. Losing by 20 would be okay, if we are down 8-10 at halftime, and MissSt pulls away late. If we get down 20 in the first half, the final score is meaningless.

O.K. huh? That is another example of the outhouse and the s**thouse.

(12-19-2017 01:12 PM)LRTrojan Wrote:  

(12-19-2017 11:32 AM)mjs Wrote:  I'll be encouraged if we don't get blown out. Losing by 20 would be okay, if we are down 8-10 at halftime, and MissSt pulls away late. If we get down 20 in the first half, the final score is meaningless.

O.K. huh? That is another example of the outhouse and the s**thouse.

I was amazed by that statement too LRTrojan. "Losing by 20 would be okay"- as they say on the NFL "Come On Man!". Now I understand that a score can balloon at the end if a team is close enough to have a chance to win and is forced to foul to try to keep that chance alive, but that hasn't usually happened to a team that loses by 20.

Like Pappy, I think State could name their score. If we are within low double figures late and lose by only 20 I'll be thrilled.


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I'll be really thrilled if Burns and Reedus play, but I'm becoming more and more pessimistic about that.

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(12-19-2017 08:19 PM)mjs Wrote:  Like Pappy, I think State could name their score. If we are within low double figures late and lose by only 20 I'll be thrilled.


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Have we really fallen off so much that a 20 point loss, to anybody, is OK?

If the other choice is a 40 point loss.

(12-20-2017 07:55 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  If the other choice is a 40 point loss.

Point taken.

(12-20-2017 09:34 AM)PTJR Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 07:55 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  If the other choice is a 40 point loss.

Point taken.

Which after Bradley we have to admit is a possibility.

(12-20-2017 09:42 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 09:34 AM)PTJR Wrote:  

(12-20-2017 07:55 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  If the other choice is a 40 point loss.

Point taken.

Which after Bradley we have to admit is a possibility.

Very possible. Vegas has MissSt by 20. They probably didn't watch the Bradley game like I did. If we keep it in the teens, I'd see it as making progress.

The bottom line on this team is that we just need to try to get better as we go. We should get a booster shot when the injured players return. It is what it is right now, but we do not need to stay there.

In some respects we have done that. Our 3-point shooting and defense have both improved.

A couple of good points from the official site preview:

As the non-conference schedule wraps up in Mississippi, Little Rock concludes the busiest stretch of basketball during the 2017-18 season. The game in Starkville against Mississippi State marks Little Rock's fifth game in 11 days, traveling nearly 3,200 miles in the process.

Wednesday's game in Starkville will mark a homecoming for a pair of Trojans as Deondre Burns and Oliver Black both hail from the state of Mississippi. Burns was born in Yazoo City, about 130 miles southwest of Starkville while Black grew up not far away in Jackson, which is also roughly 130 miles from the Mississippi State campus. Black should also be quite familiar with the settings in Humphrey Coliseum as he played his freshman season for the Bulldogs, appearing in 31 games with four starts while scoring 56 points and adding 75 rebounds in a reserve role in 2014-15.

Oliver should really be fired up for this game. I hope he has a good one.