ALABAMA HOOPS: Tide looking for spark at Mississippi State

The shortest road trip in the Southeastern Conference isn’t likely to be the easiest for Alabama’s basketball team.

The Crimson Tide faces Mississippi State in Starkville at 8 p.m. today.

The Bulldogs have won three of their last four games, running their record to 19-8 overall. Their 7-5 mark shares the top spot in the SEC West with Arkansas.

Alabama is 14-12 overall, 4-8 overall, although one of those league victories was a 62-57 win over Mississippi State in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 23.

The Crimson Tide, however, is reeling. They are 1-4 in February and have dropped five straight road games.

Their frustration continued after seeing another double-digit lead in the second half disappear last Saturday in a 76-70 loss at Georgia.
Alabama has led at halftime or later in seven of its eight SEC losses.

That has taken a toll on players.

“We didn’t have the toughness to finish,” said senior guard Mikhail Torrance, who leads the team in scoring, but has come off the bench in recent games.

“Coach (Anthony Grant) had a great gameplan, as usual, and we were up. Then we just stopped making plays.”

That’s been the “recurring theme,” Grant noted Monday.

“It’s almost like we become two different teams from the first 30 minutes of the game to the last 10 minutes of the game,” Grant said.

“If we have any type of a lead there is a mentality of playing not to lose as opposed to playing to win, like we have something to protect and we’re just going to hold on to it and hope the clock runs out.”

Grant has identified the problem. Fixing it, of course, is more difficult.

“For me, it comes a point where as a player you have to reach a point where you say, ‘OK, enough is enough,’” the coach said. “... I think some of that just has to come with experience and then some of that is just the innate ability to go out and fight and compete. We haven’t shown the ability to get there yet.”

Mississippi State’s lone loss in its last four games was in overtime to No. 2 Kentucky. That’s the only home-court loss for the Bulldogs this season.

Grant said defending the Bulldogs is a problem because they create pressure outside with Dee Best, Barry Stewart and Ravern Johnson on the perimeter, as well as inside with Jarvis Varnado (13.2 points, 10.9 rebounds per game).

State had a horrible shooting night in its first game against Alabama. The Bulldogs were 2-for-16 from beyond the 3-point line. Varnado was juts 4-for-14 from the field and finished with nine points and eight rebounds. It was the only time this season he’s been held to single-digit production in both categories.

“The first time we played them one of the big points of emphasis for us was defending the 3-point line,” Grant said. “That certainly does require a lot of attention which opens things up for Varnado inside.”

Alabama sophomore forward JaMychal Green outplayed Varnado in the first game. Green averages 14.9 points per game, just behind Torrance’s 15.0 average.

Senario Hillman has started to warm up, scoring in double figures the past three games for Alabama.