Mississippi State has plenty of talent, but lack results

Under Ben Howland, Mississippi State enlists a pesky amount of talent from year-to-year. Since 2019, they’ve produced offenses ranking 13th, 18th, 92nd and now 21st so far this season in points per 100 possessions (per Bart Torvik).

They also crash the offensive glass, ranking in the top 20 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage each of the last four years.

This Mississippi State group reflects those strengths. Howland rostered a swath of tough, athletic forwards and returned two of his three leading scorers, including preseason first-team All-SEC guard Iverson Molinar.

Molinar and DJ Stewart comprised the splashiest scoring backcourt in the SEC in 2020-21 as both guys averaged 16 points per game. With Stewart gone, Molinar is the lead guard, averaging 17.7 points and 4.3 assists per night in 2021-22. He’s shooting worse from deep this season but he’s converting at 56% inside the arc. Most notably, he’s knocking down 47.6% of his long twos.

He even tops TyTy Washington and Oscar Tshiebwe as the most analytically valuable player in the SEC per Torvik.

Mississippi State’s lead returner down low is Tolu Smith, whose season has been marred by injury issues. When healthy, Smith is a skilled low-post presence that’s averaged roughly 13 points and eight rebounds as a Bulldog.

Even without Smith, Howland welcomed an impressive transfer haul, headlined by former All-ACC first-teamer Garrison Brooks. He averaged 16.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in 2020-21 with North Carolina and was last year’s Preseason ACC Player of the Year.

State also nabbed two former top-50 recruits in the portal. Michigan State’s Rocket Watts and Memphis’ DJ Jeffries (sound familiar?) both started 30+ games at their previous stops before migrating to Starkville. Shakeel Moore from NC State is the least-heralded of the group and he’s averaging 11.2 points a game.

With Molinar, Smith and the high-major, high-impact transfers, MSU has five players averaging double figures — all with pedigree either in Starkville or at programs as successful or more.

Mississippi State has the talent to make the NCAA Tournament this year and in many other years under Howland. They just typically fail to do so. Howland’s tenure, for the most part, is a tragedy of talent. Talented players spending their March’s in the NIT instead of the NCAAT.

The 2021-22 campaign has already seen State lose at home to Minnesota, Colorado State and Louisville on neutral courts. Just poor scheduling to play two bad high-majors and a great mid-major away from home while not playing a single ranked team until conference play.

That’s a typical schedule under Howland, though; bad non-conference slate with a few rough losses, now in need of a strong SEC season to save their tourney hopes. Shame it probably won’t happen; Molinar, Brooks and Smith are a heck of a trio.