Mississippi State basketball moved to 2-0 on the season with a 101-66 beatdown of Georgia State. The Bulldogs dominated this contest start to finish behind an incredibly balanced offensive performance coupled with the strong defense we've all grown accustomed to.
Here are some thoughts from the win...
Welcome back, Cam Matthews
Mississippi State didn't get to see much from one of its most important players in the season-opener. Senior forward and Swiss Army Knife Cam Matthews played sparingly against West Georgia after committing a pair of early fouls and ended that game without making much of an impact.
He made an impact early against Georgia State.
THROW IT DOWN CAM 💥#HailState🐶 | 📺» https://t.co/1CEAogvpzo pic.twitter.com/Ft1q8FnOQA
— Mississippi State Men's Basketball (@HailStateMBK) November 9, 2024
Matthews' physicality was on full display Friday night. His final line of nine points on 4-6 shooting and six rebounds won't jump off the page, but his minutes were again limited. And as is always the case with Cam, he's not a player that's going to finish with a crazy stat line. He's going to play elite defense, rebound, and then make a few plays that get everyone on their feet, and that's the player we saw tonight.
Mississippi State's has more depth offensively than ever before
It'd been repeated ad nauseum, but the offseason goal for Chris Jans was to surround Josh Hubbard with a plethora of weapons to take pressure off of him and give him better opportunities. In the season-opener, Boston College-transfer Claudell Harris had a huge night, showing how dangerous the Bulldogs can be with just one more scorer.
Friday night, we saw that it won't just be Harris and Hubbard. There is genuinely a deep roster of talented scorers in Starkville. Florida-transfer Riley Kugel had his coming out party with 14 points. Former Penn Stater Kanye Clary had 11 and six assists. Georgia-transfer RJ Melendez had 10. And as for Hubbard and Harris, they went for 15 and 10, respectively.
Several other guys like the aforementioned Cam Matthews, Shawn Jones, and KeShawn Murphy made big plays as well. This isn't a one-man show. This isn't even a two-man show. The Bulldogs can go well into their bench and still find a guy capable of going-off for a big scoring night. And that truly gives this squad a chance to be special.
Beating lesser teams doesn't always mean much, but total domination means plenty
Mississippi State has played two games against two bad teams. Neither West Georgia nor Georgia State will be threatening mid-majors this season. But they've won those games by an average final score of 98-63. Winning by 35 points a game is impressive, no matter who you're playing.
The offense is fully as advertised. This team can score at a higher-clip than any State team we've seen in years. And guess what? A Chris Jans team is still going to play stifling defense. Something special is brewing in Starkville. This is going to be a fun season.