Basketball: LSU 71 @ Mississippi St 76 - Final. Just not enough.

Basketball: LSU (12-7,2-3) @ Mississippi St (16-4,3-2) | Wed 7PM | TV:SECN

**TV**: WBXH, Cable 16 in Baton Rouge, WKCE in Alexandria, KLAF in Lafayette, WUPL in New Orleans, KSHV in Shreveport

SoS’s Power Rankings 1/22/12
1. Kentucky
2. Vanderbilt
3. Florida
4. Alabama
5. Miss St
6. Arkansas
7. LSU
8. Ole Miss
9. Tennessee
10. Auburn
11. Georgia
12. South Carolina

General Overview

Mississippi State is a good basketball team. They came up with a huge victory this weekend at Vanderbilt in overtime. They came back from an 11 point halftime deficit and came through away from home. The Tigers have to go into Starkville and compete. The Tigers did a very good job of competing in the second half of the Florida game. They wouldn’t lay down and get blown out. They had the lead down to 8 points numerous times, before Florida would hit a clutch 3 pointer to put it back out of reach. Fortunately for LSU they should have a big body back that everyone has missed, JOB3 (Confirmed ready to play via twitter).

State’s biggest problem has been allowing clubs to keep it close, even though they have been able to pull out most of the close ones. Utah State only lost by 2, Tenn by 4, Florida Atlantic by 7, and even Detroit by 5. So LSU needs to keep it close, but try to finish the last 5 minutes strong. Miss St has the size and length to match up with our bigs. Moultrie is a 6’11” 230pd Junior who will be knocking bodies down low with Hamilton. It will be imperative that Hamilton has a great game and we need to have Storm/JOB3 come up big also.

Bost their PG is a stud and needs to be contained if we plan on winning. We need to make sure to continue to play hard defense and win the rebounding battle if we plan on winning.

Schedule and SEC stakes

Mississippi St is probably the best team from the SEC west on their best night, but near 4th best on their lesser nights. If LSU catches State on a bad night they can take advantage of the fact that Miss St tends to lose some games they probably shouldn’t (see Ole Miss). If LSU can pull this game it would be huge for LSU’s chances to finish in the top 5 of the SEC. We are in this stretch of just super strong opponents and winning as many as possible is very important. I believe we beat State at home, but it would certainly be a steal if we could win in Starkvegas.

PG Matchup

#1 Anthony Hickey 5’10” 172 Freshman
Vs.

#3 Dee Bost 6’2” 176 Senior

2 Guard Matchup

#10 Andre Stringer 5’9” 170 Sophomore
Vs.

#22 Brian Bryant 6’3” 168 Senior

3 Guard Matchup

#22 Ralston Turner 6’6” 193 Sophomore
Vs.

#4 Rodney Hood 6’8” 204 Freshman

Forward Matchup

#24 Storm Warren 6’7” 230 Senior
Vs.

#1 Renardo Sidney 6’10” 280 Junior

Center Matchup

#41 Justin Hamilton 7’0” 260 Junior
Vs.

#23 Arnett Moultrie 6’11” 249 Junior

Stats:



Prediction:
LSU 68 Mississippi St 62

LSU story

Miss St Story