First Scouting Report: In Mississippi St., UK faces another veteran-heavy team
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Game day: Texas A&M 97, No. 6 Kentucky 92 (OT)
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 6 Kentucky (12-3, 2-1 SEC) will face Mississippi State (12-4, 1-2 SEC) on Wednesday, Jan. 17, at Rupp Arena (capacity 20,545) at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by ESPN2.
Mississippi State lost at home to Alabama 82-74 on Saturday night.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Mississippi State 94-19 and has won 17 of the past 18 meetings.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 17-1 vs. the Bulldogs.
Mississippi State coach Chris Jans is 0-1 vs. Kentucky.
Most recent meeting
Oscar Tshiebwe had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Jacob Toppin chipped in 16 points and Antonio Reeves 14 as Kentucky defeated Mississippi State 71-68 on Feb. 15, 2023, at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville.
Tolu Smith hit 8 of 9 shots and 6 of 7 free throws and scored 22 points to lead Mississippi State.
Power rankings
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Kentucky is No. 16 and Mississippi State No. 25.
The NCAA NET rankings have Kentucky No. 16, Mississippi State No. 28.
Know your foe
1. Mississippi State star Tolu Smith missed the Bulldogs’ first 12 games due to a foot injury. However, the 6-foot-11, 245-pound super-senior — who began his college career at Western Kentucky in 2018-19 — has come back with a roar.
Through three games, Smith was averaging 17.3 points and 5.7 rebounds. To say Smith’s shot has been dialed in since he returned would be to understate: He has made 16 of 21 field-goal tries (76.2%) and 20 of 24 foul shots (83.3%).
Smith (see above) played very well against Kentucky last season. Overall vs. UK in his career, Smith has made 15 of 33 shots and averaged 14 points and 9.3 rebounds vs. the Cats.
With Smith’s return, MSU has all five of its starters back from last season. The Bulldogs start three super-seniors and two seniors.
2. Besides the WKU transfer Tolu Smith, the MSU roster has two other players with ties to the state of Kentucky.
Super-senior forward D.J. Jeffries, a long-ago UK recruiting commit, is averaging 6.7 points and 5.9 rebounds. Over the course of his (long) college career, the 6-7, 215-pound Jeffries has lost his shooting touch.
As a freshman playing for Memphis in 2019-20, Jeffries shot 51.3% overall and 39% on 3-point shots. As a Memphis sophomore, Jeffries shot 44.3 and 35.2, on field goals and treys, respectively.
Last year at Mississippi State, however, Jeffries shot only 35.1% from the floor and 27.2 on 3-pointers. This year, so far, Jeffries has shot slightly better, 35.8, on field goals overall but slightly worse 22.6%, on treys.
Meanwhile, after former Corbin High School star Andrew Taylor averaged 20.2 points a game last season for Marshall, he has averaged only 3.9 points a contest in seven games for Mississippi State. The 6-3, 188-pound super-senior has not played since Dec. 13 and is said to be out due to a “personal matter.”
3. In Chris Jans’ first season as Mississippi State coach last season, the Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament in spite of being the worst 3-point shooting team in NCAA Division I (26.6% made as a team) and a dreadful foul-shooting team (64.7%), too.
This year, State has improved in both areas. Through 15 games, Mississippi State was making 31.6% on treys and 72.3% on free-throw attempts.
Helping MSU improve in both 3-point and free-throw shooting has been freshman Josh Hubbard. A 5-10, 190-pound guard from Madison, Mississippi, Hubbard comes off the bench yet is State’s second-leading scorer at 15.1 points a game. The all-time leading scorer (4,367 points) in the history of Mississippi high school basketball, Hubbard is making 39.4% of his 3-point attempts and 84% of his foul shots.
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 4:45 PM.
