Ben Howland on next years BB team............

[99jc]

STARKVILLE - Ben Howland wasn't coy.

"I will tell you this, and I want you to quote me: Buy your season tickets now. Get on board now," the Mississippi State men's basketball coach said. "We?re going to be good, and this is going to be fun. The Hump is going to rock."

This is the first time I've been excited about men's BB team in many years. This 2021 year could be a great year in the 3 big sports.

[CadaverDawg]

Well one thing is for sure, the fans won't be more worried about the Women's team this year. I hope we make the Hump as awesome as it was back in the Stansbury days

[KentuckyDawg13]

Stupid response.

[Coach34]

If we get Lefty back- we are a Sweet 16 team. He will be held to the same level as Stands. You have the team- deliver

[MoreCowbell]

STARKVILLE - Ben Howland wasn't coy.

"I will tell you this, and I want you to quote me: Buy your season tickets now. Get on board now," the Mississippi State men's basketball coach said. "We?re going to be good, and this is going to be fun. The Hump is going to rock."

This is the first time I've been excited about men's BB team in many years. This 2021 year could be a great year in the 3 big sports.

I like it.

[NCMSTFAN]

Well one thing is for sure, the fans won't be more worried about the Women's team this year. I hope we make the Hump as awesome as it was back in the Stansbury days

My goodness do the Nikki Mccray haters have to come in every basketball topic with negativity? If you don't want to support them then don't, and if they turn out to be good keep that same energy and don't support them then either. I will support all of our programs, that's what fans do. A new coach with a new system doesn't always work year one.

Back to the topic, I am excited about bringing in Jeffries and Brooks, 2 proven players from high level teams to go along with Molinar Tolu and Hopefully DJ. That starting 5 would be scary. And Fountain, Matthews, Davis and Garcia are good bench players. Plus our Freshman, We still need to get another Gaurd

[CadaverDawg]

My goodness do the Nikki Mccray haters have to come in every basketball topic with negativity?

Not sure about "every" topic, but yes to this one.

[Tbonewannabe]

My goodness do the Nikki Mccray haters have to come in every basketball topic with negativity? If you don't want to support them then don't, and if they turn out to be good keep that same energy and don't support them then either. I will support all of our programs, that's what fans do. A new coach with a new system doesn't always work year one.

Back to the topic, I am excited about bringing in Jeffries and Brooks, 2 proven players from high level teams to go along with Molinar Tolu and Hopefully DJ. That starting 5 would be scary. And Fountain, Matthews, Davis and Garcia are good bench players. Plus our Freshman, We still need to get another Gaurd

Getting DJ back lets us compete for the SEC title and should be Sweet 16. Dickie V has already put us in his early top 25.

[StarkVegasSteve]

My goodness do the Nikki Mccray haters have to come in every basketball topic with negativity? If you don't want to support them then don't, and if they turn out to be good keep that same energy and don't support them then either. I will support all of our programs, that's what fans do. A new coach with a new system doesn't always work year one.

Back to the topic, I am excited about bringing in Jeffries and Brooks, 2 proven players from high level teams to go along with Molinar Tolu and Hopefully DJ. That starting 5 would be scary. And Fountain, Matthews, Davis and Garcia are good bench players. Plus our Freshman, We still need to get another Gaurd

The Women's Basketball cult came into every basketball thread for the last 5 years to tell that Vic Schaefer was sent down from heaven and all his players just played their gosh darned hearts out and took pictures with little Jimmy and Johnny. We're making up for lost time.

[NWADAWG]

My goodness do the Nikki Mccray haters have to come in every basketball topic with negativity? If you don't want to support them then don't, and if they turn out to be good keep that same energy and don't support them then either. I will support all of our programs, that's what fans do. A new coach with a new system doesn't always work year one.

Back to the topic, I am excited about bringing in Jeffries and Brooks, 2 proven players from high level teams to go along with Molinar Tolu and Hopefully DJ. That starting 5 would be scary. And Fountain, Matthews, Davis and Garcia are good bench players. Plus our Freshman, We still need to get another Gaurd

Not to hate on NMP but there may be some truth to the premise of women's basketball attendance having an impact on the men's attendance. Starkville is a great place and I really enjoyed my time there because I like smaller towns. But, with that smaller population, it makes it harder to fill 10k seats as often. If the women's program is down, then it likely will help attendance for men's games.

On the flip side, I live in Northwest AR where I think the area could fill multiple 10k seat events on the same night often. Along with that there are tons of people and traffic everywhere you go, want them or not. Many of those are idiots transporting from California. Can suck for people that like things simple - good for coliseums that want to fill seats.

[Johnson85]

Not to hate on NMP but there may be some truth to the premise of women's basketball attendance having an impact on the men's attendance. Starkville is a great place and I really enjoyed my time there because I like smaller towns. But, with that smaller population, it makes it harder to fill 10k seats as often. If the women's program is down, then it likely will help attendance for men's games.

On the flip side, I live in Northwest AR where I think the area could fill multiple 10k seat events on the same night often. Along with that there are tons of people and traffic everywhere you go, want them or not. Many of those are idiots transporting from California. Can suck for people that like things simple - good for coliseums that want to fill seats.

I don't think there's any doubt that there's some truth to that. May not be as big of a factor as people thing, as a lot of the bandwagon jumpers on the women's team probably wouldn't be there if they had to pay men's basketball prices and so wouldn'dt be going to men's regardless, but certainly there are some fans that want to support a basketball team and aren't going to multiple games a week in person, so they choose the one we're likely to win.

[OLJWales]

My goodness do the Nikki Mccray haters have to come in every basketball topic with negativity? If you don't want to support them then don't, and if they turn out to be good keep that same energy and don't support them then either. I will support all of our programs, that's what fans do. A new coach with a new system doesn't always work year one.

Back to the topic, I am excited about bringing in Jeffries and Brooks, 2 proven players from high level teams to go along with Molinar Tolu and Hopefully DJ. That starting 5 would be scary. And Fountain, Matthews, Davis and Garcia are good bench players. Plus our Freshman, We still need to get another Gaurd

Many of us didn't pay too much attention to Women's Hoops till our previous coach started doing great things and have never seen how big a difference a weaker coach makes. I see no problem bringing it up every now and again.

[NCMSTFAN]

Not sure about "every" topic, but yes to this one.

Then remain that way. Don't change up if things get turned around.

[ZedFedder]

Let?s roll then, Benjamin.

[NCMSTFAN]

Getting DJ back lets us compete for the SEC title and should be Sweet 16. Dickie V has already put us in his early top 25.

I agree.. it will be a very talented team. Right now most Mock Drafts have DJ as a 2nd rounder, so unless he gets some sort of guarantee like Woodard did last year, I expect and hope he comes back.

[NCMSTFAN]

The Women's Basketball cult came into every basketball thread for the last 5 years to tell that Vic Schaefer was sent down from heaven and all his players just played their gosh darned hearts out and took pictures with little Jimmy and Johnny. We're making up for lost time.

Lol thats actually funny.... but my goodness give her a fair shot or simply don't follow the Women if you are that bitter.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Lol thats actually funny.... but my goodness give her a fair shot or simply don't follow the Women if you are that bitter.

I'm all for giving her a fair shot. I actually think our fans are too hard on her. What I'm bitter about is that while Howland was ho hum winning 20 games a year for the last 4 years and bringing our program back from the Rick Ray death penalty he can't get 5,000 people to show up. At the same time if Vic Schaefer sat out at mid court and read the paper it'd be a sellout. I'm bitter that the cult thought he walked on water and everything about him and his family was perfect. It wasn't.

[Saltydog]

Meh, we'll see.....Until we get someone who can consistently break a press and handle the ball, I'm not buying just yet......I don't care what anyone says, losing Devion Smith hurt......

[parabrave]

Meh, we'll see.....Until we get someone who can consistently break a press and handle the ball, I'm not buying just yet......I don't care what anyone says, losing Devion Smith hurt......

Dam you stole my thought. But you forgot to add can they defend a 3?

[thf24]

Meh, we'll see.....Until we get someone who can consistently break a press and handle the ball, I'm not buying just yet......I don't care what anyone says, losing Devion Smith hurt......

Deivon will probably get better as a sophomore as most tend to do, but strictly based on what we saw last year, he wasn't the guy to bring the ball up under pressure any more than DJ or Iverson.

He really wouldn't have fit very well even as a willing backup on next year's team anyway. He's an aggressive score-first point guard whose outside shot isn't quite there yet. In contrast, since we're suddenly loaded with veteran scorers, what we need out of a backup point next year is a reliable handler looking to distribute first who can knock down open spot up shots when they're there. Assuming we can find that guy in the portal, we'll be better off than if we had convinced Deivon to stay.