Missouri vs Mississippi State: 2022-23 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Mississippi State is squarely on the bubble and could use a win against the Missouri Tigers. Do the Bulldogs have what it takes to get the SEC victory?

TV schedule: Tuesday, February 21st, 7:00 pm ET. SEC Network

Arena: Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri

Missouri (19-8) looks to continue its strong season under first-year head coach Dennis Gates when it welcomes Mississippi State (18-9) to Columbia for a late-season SEC matchup. Since their previous meeting earlier this month in Starkville, a Tigers loss, Missouri has experienced some ups and downs in their play. They beat South Carolina in a game that was closer than most anticipated and then followed that up with an upset of sixth-ranked Tennessee on a Deandre Gholston three at the buzzer. In both of these wins Missouri connected on more than 10 threes, letting their high-powered offense make up for their lacking defense.

Following the high of knocking off a top ten team in Tennessee, Missouri headed to Auburn where they were unable to gain any offensive momentum falling behind big early on in the game and eventually losing by 33. Missouri followed up that poor outing against Auburn with another poor offensive showing against Texas A&M, failing to put together offensive consistency.

Missouri comes into the game with one of the better offenses in the nation, averaging 80.3 points per game while averaging over 9 made threes per game. Led by senior forward Kobe Brown (16.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg) and senior guard D’Moi Hodge (13.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg), the Tigers look to bounce back and a pick up a solid conference win heading into the last few games of the season and the conference tournament.

Mississippi State is coming off a tight loss to a tough Kentucky team and an overtime win against in-state rival Ole Miss. The Bulldogs, averaging 65.7 points this season, are led by senior forward Tolu Smith (14.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg).

Missouri will need to be able to find opportunities to push the ball and get quick points before Mississippi State can get set on defense. Missouri will also need to be able to move the ball and get open shots. Getting hot from three early on is a must for this Tigers team, as they cannot afford to allow the Bulldogs to hang around with how poorly their defense often looks. Missouri needs this win not only to get back on track for the season but also to help in their NCAA Tournament seeding.

On the other side, Mississippi State’s size and strength look to provide Missouri with issues on the boards, slowing down their offense and taking away any second-chance points by outrebounding the Tigers. If they can control the pace early on, the Bulldogs should be able to make this a low-scoring game.

It’s safe to say that the Tigers and Mississippi State have opposite styles of play this season. The biggest question in this game is which teams strengths hold, will Missouri’s high-powered offense (80.3 ppg) show up against this stingy Mississippi State defense (giving up 59.2 ppg)? If Missouri can find a way to score the ball with any regularity and deal with the size of Mississippi State on the boards then the Tigers should be able to end this two-game skid. If not then Missouri might be in danger of dropping three straight games and playing themselves out of the tournament.