First Scouting Report: UK goes for a much-needed Quad 1 win at Mississippi State
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Game day: Georgia 75, Kentucky 68
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Georgia in Athens, Ga.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
Kentucky (16-9, 7-5 SEC) will face Mississippi State (17-8, 5-7 SEC) on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at Humphrey Coliseum (seating capacity of 10,575) on the campus of Mississippi State University in Starkville.
The game will tip off at 8:30 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by the SEC Network.
The Bulldogs defeated Arkansas 70-64 on Saturday.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Mississippi State 100-21 and has won 16 of the past 17 meetings.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 16-1 vs. the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State head man Chris Jans will coach against Kentucky for the first time.
Most recent meeting
Oscar Tshiebwe scored 21 points and grabbed 22 rebounds as Kentucky defeated Mississippi State 82-74 in overtime on Jan. 25, 2022, at Rupp Arena in Lexington. After UK lost a 45-29 second-half lead and wound up in OT tied at 72, Kellan Grady scored eight straight points to rescue the Wildcats.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET rankings have Kentucky No. 39, Mississippi State No. 47.
In the Pomeroy ratings, Kentucky is No. 40, Mississippi State No. 45.
The Sagarin ratings have Kentucky No. 35, Mississippi State No. 44.
Know your foe
1. A former junior-college head coach, new Mississippi State coach Chris Jans comes from the coaching trees of Porter Moser and Gregg Marshall. Jans worked under Moser, the former Loyola (Chicago) and current Oklahoma head man, at Illinois State (2004-2007) and for Marshall at Wichita State (2007-2014).
Going into Saturday’s game at Arkansas, Jans was 159-52 overall in seven seasons as an NCAA Division I head man. Jans went 122-32 in five seasons (2017-2022) at New Mexico State and 21-12 in one season (2014-15) at Bowling Green State.
2. Entering the game at Arkansas, Mississippi State has been good at home (10-3), good on neutral courts (4-1) and not-so-good on the road (2-4).
The Bulldogs have noteworthy non-league victories over teams from the Big East (58-55 over Marquette), the Big Ten (69-51 at Minnesota), the Big 12 (81-74 over then-No. 11 TCU) and the Pac-12 (52-49 over Utah).
For Kentucky, a road game against a team in the top 75 in the NET Rankings is an opportunity for a much-needed Quad 1 victory. UK is 1-7 in such contests this season.
3. Big man Tolu Smith, who began his college career at Western Kentucky, is Mississippi State’s top player. The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Smith is averaging 14.7 points and 8.3 rebounds. Smith is one of the rare players shooting a higher percentage on field-goal attempts (58.4 percent) than free-throw tries (54.6 percent).
This story was originally published February 11, 2023 at 2:24 PM.
