Mississippi State switches gears tonight.
After an impressive 12-1 start in non-league play that includes resume-building wins over Dayton, Clemson, Cincinnati, Wofford and BYU, the No. 17 Bulldogs begin Southeastern Conference play at South Carolina.
“I’m excited about our team,” Howland said. “We’ve done a good job thus far. We played a much tougher non-conference schedule this year than a year ago. Our guys have really responded well to that challenge.”
The new NET ranking metric that the NCAA selection committee is using this season also has the Bulldogs as the 17th ranked team in the country. Mississippi State’s lone loss this season was against Arizona State 72-67 in a neutral-site game in Las Vegas.
The Bulldogs have been building towards this year since Howland’s arrival in 2016. MSU broke even in his second season at 16-16 and posted its first winning season last year (25-12) while advancing to the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament – the program’s first postseason appearance since 2011-12.
Seniors Quinndary Weatherspoon and Aric Holman have been along for the ride with Howland every step of the way.
Weatherspoon leads the team averaging 17.2 points while Holman is third scoring 12.5 and is the top rebounder at 8.6 per game.
“We’re now at a point where we have two seniors that I’ve had a chance to coach for four years – Quinndary Weatherspoon and Aric Holman,” Howland said. “They’ve given us great leadership and are both very good players. Both have improved each and every year.”
A pair of juniors are also producing at a high level as well. Point guard Lamar Peters is averaging 13.2 points and dishing out 6.2 assists while guard Tyson Carter is contributing 10.5 points off the bench.
“Lamar Peters is really playing with a lot of poise and doing a great job of running the team at the point,” Howland said.
“Tyson Carter is shooting the heck out of the ball and has made a big jump from last year to this year through his offseason work that he put in.”
In all, the Bulldogs have five players scoring in double figures rounded out by sophomore guard Nick Weatherspoon averaging 10.1 points.
State is also a boost from a pair of freshmen off the bench with Reggie Perry providing 7.6 points and 5.5 rebounds in 19.2 minutes and Robert Woodard II adding 3.8 points and 2.8 boards in 13.9 minutes.
