Kentucky Basketball: 2018-19 keys for the Wildcats at Mississippi State
By Andy Harrell
3. Control the tempo against the Bulldogs
Put plain and simple, very few teams can compete with the University of Kentucky purely from a talent standpoint. Mississippi State is not one of those teams.
If the Bulldogs are able to avoid a repeat of January 22nd’s matchup in Lexington it will be because of effort and scheme. The Bulldogs will have to capitalize on one of the few soft spots in Kentucky’s style of play. BAttling long and aggressive defenders on the perimeter such as Ashton Hagans and Keldon Johnson, State will have to come up with a way to make Kentucky pay for what it’s good at.
This Wildcats team is different from those in years past. They rank in the bottom half of Ken Pomeroy’s ‘adjusted tempo” metric. That doesn’t necessarily mean that this year Cats are less athletic or talented than in years past, just that they focus on scoring and playing defense differently.
With that said, a slow tempo nearly ground Mississippi State’s interior play to halt in these teams’ January meeting. Ben Howland’s big men COMBINED for 8 points on the day. The Bulldogs will certainly look for a new plan of attack as their prior one could be described as whatever the opposite of “effective” is.
I would expect to see a hard pressuring Mississippi State defense use their energy at home to get out and try and score in transition. Kentucky’s perimeter players like to crash the paint and prevent easy layups in transition. The Dog’s should have a real opportunity here to knock down some trailing three pointers. They’ve managed to be quite effective at it in league play thus far and it could be the key to sticking in a game with one of the nation’s best teams and defenses.
Transition play in itself will dictate the outcome of this game, as Mississippi states front-court will probably only have one real scoring threat in surging, Reggie Perry. All of the things the Bulldogs might be able to accomplish in the transition game will be totally predicated on pressuring the ball on defense.
For Mississippi State, as their defense goes so will their point total. Look for a big game from lesser known guard Tyson Carter, as he should be able to slip away from the mindful eyes watching Quindarry Weathersppon and get some decent shot attempts in transition. Carter is 35% from three-point range and shoots 58% overall from the field.
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All in all Mississippi State, though just outside of the Top 25, is significantly overmatched at really all but one position. The Wildcats are gaining momentum at just the right time and look like they may not have a serious challenger until the following Saturday when they’ll host #1 Tennessee. If State wants to keep it close and possibly even win they’ll need to have a near perfect game from their guards and an inspired performance from the bigs.