No matter how many games the LSU men’s basketball team plays this season, coach Johnny Jones will still talk about growth.
The Tigers (14-8, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) let a golden opportunity against No. 1 Oklahoma escape through their fingertips in the waning seconds of their Jan. 30 game. But, as Jones indicates, a sign of growth is the way his team rebounded against Auburn, securing an 80-68 win on the road Tuesday night. LSU won its last five games following losses, excluding the three-game skid in November.
LSU, picked to finish fourth in the SEC, is now tied for first place in the league after No. 8 Texas A&M’s loss to Vanderbilt Thursday. Going into a matchup with Mississippi State at 5 p.m. Saturday in the PMAC, Jones likes how his team is developing heading into the final nine games of the regular season.
“We knew how tough of a conference it is,” Jones said. “Any time you can have success on the road, it’s huge for you. We’re sitting here at 7-2 right now. Knowing the caliber of teams we’ve had to play against — the No. 1, No. 2-picked teams in the first two games — and to be sitting in second place and a half-game back right now from the leader at the midway point, I’d say we’ve been playing pretty well.”
With Ben Howland taking over the program, this season has been a transitional year for the Bulldogs (9-12, 2-7 SEC), dropping their first five conference games before picking up a win against Ole Miss on Jan. 23. Moreover, Mississippi State has struggled in games away from its home floor, notching a 3-8 record in games outside of Starkville, Mississippi.
Although they won two of their last four games, the Bulldogs are coming off a two-point loss to Alabama in overtime on Tuesday night, relinquishing a seven-point lead in the last five minutes.
Still, the Bulldogs have the top-ranked guard from the class of 2015, freshman guard Malik Newman. Newman, who was recruited heavily by LSU, is Mississippi State’s second-leading scorer with 13.2 points per game. The former McDonald’s All-American shoots 41.9 percent from three-point territory, leading a team that averages just a 32.3 percent clip on the season.
“He can score the ball pretty much against anybody,” said LSU guard Antonio Blakeney, who played with Newman in Jordan Brand Classic.
But Newman knocked down just one basket against the Crimson Tide, as the Bulldogs relied heavily on senior forward Gavin Ware, who was coming off a concussion. The 6-foot-9 team-leading scorer popped off the bench and poured in a game-high 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting.
Even with Ware’s ability in the paint, senior guard Keith Hornsby’s experience in last year’s loss to the Bulldogs gives him reason not to take the guard lineup lightly, including recently injured junior point guard I.J. Ready and senior Craig Sword.
“That’s a really good backcourt,” Hornsby said. “It’s almost to me a little bit like Georgia, like [J.J] Frazier, [Charles] Mann and [Kenny] Gaines. All three of them, if you don’t really clamp down on them, can really do damage. We really have to do our best of slowing them down, as well as Gavin Ware down low.”
Meanwhile, LSU seems to have found some consistency in conference play, especially on the road. Sandwiched between the two-point defeat to the Sooners, the Tigers have rattled off wins in their last three SEC games, including victories at Alabama and Auburn.
In the second half versus Auburn, LSU shot 60.7 percent from the field, holding off Auburn in the final eight minutes after jumping out to a 21-point lead. Even in the first half, LSU converted 53.1 percent of its shots, led by 8-for-12 clip from freshman forward Ben Simmons.
Along with Simmons, junior guard Tim Quarterman provided a balanced showing in the first half, notching seven points, four rebounds and three assists. However, he left the game at the 14:10 mark of the second half after colliding with an Auburn player on a rebound, which caused an injury to his right hip.
Quarterman said the hip injury is doing better with treatment, and he expects to play Saturday. But, Jones wasn’t sure if he would be able to participate in an “intense practice” on Thursday after giving the team off on Wednesday.
Even with the ailment, Quarterman isn’t looking past a hungry Bulldog team, especially after a cold shooting day in Starkville last year.
“You just can’t look past nobody in the SEC,” Quarterman said. “We’re one of the top teams, so they going to try to come in here and beat us, play their best. So, we just got to be ready for that.”