A key thing that I have noticed regarding these last 3 games that Miss. State has lost is that they have gotten out hustled, out efforted in all three. Also, the opposing team is normally the aggressor in these games. They attack Miss. State while Miss. State mostly stays on it's heels. It's as if Miss. State is a prey. Miss. State could benefit from going to a hunter type mentality. Come out of the gates on the attack defensively, maxmum effort, pressure, trap, quickness, ect. Not just sitting back as these top 25 teams attack you. Defend in bounds play, everything..and when they do attack you defensively take care of the ball and make the right reads. Go hard 4 quarters (including energy level). One of the key things that Coach Schaefer built around while at Miss. State was tremendous effort for 4 quarters. Remember him indicating how they went all out in practice and played the same way they practiced. During that time period Miss. State went way harder in games than any team in the SEC. Teams couldn't match the effort of Schaefer's teams at Miss State. South Carolina was able to out talent them back then at times but not effort.
Coach Purcell needs to get the team on pressure and attack mode for 4 quarters. Go all out and if 1 guard gets too tired bring in another. Also, Coach Purcell indicated today that they are expecting to have the guard from France (Melissa Guillet) available within the next couple of weeks so plenty of guards to play aggressive with. Also, take care of the ball, win these rebounding battles, loose balls, play smart. Recently watched an old video of that 2004 NCAA Tourney with Mike Anderson's UAB team knocking off #1 seed Kentucky..That was a good example of a so-called out matched team bringing tremendous effort, seemingly madness type effort to win that game. UAB was down early..UAB came back, down again...UAB came back. Kentucky took the lead late...UAB came back. Nothing Kentucky could do to shake this team. Players people hadn't heard of...players like the Ronnell and Donnell Taylor twins. Squeaky Johnson, ect. Purcell needs to show his team and coaches these type videos. https://youtu.be/7w1LugK1b4c?si=pFKB0xbprgsu86G1

