Ben Howland: From LA to Mississippi State

[jbcarol]

Howland's team putting butts in seats?

Will need more than the edge.

A severe thunderstorm warning resulted in Mississippi State scanning only 552 tickets for its game against Northwestern State in November. Oregon State, an NCAA Tournament team in 2016 and the only Power 5 opponent on the home nonconference schedule, came to town a few days later, but Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys were on TV. Only 2,724 fans came. The Dec. 29 game against UMKC was just too close to New Year's, so there were only 2,775 fans at Humphrey Coliseum, which has a capacity of 10,575.

Social media always has a reason why Mississippi State's fans do not attend men's basketball games, but a study of the actual number of tickets used this season and the average attendance dating back more than three decades reveals it to be a much larger issue that's become worse over time.

New athletic director John Cohen, who never had any problems drawing a crowd during his time as the baseball coach, recently said that he believed that when the Southeastern Conference games began the crowd would increase.

"There's no doubt in my mind," Cohen said.

The first game was Tuesday against Alabama. It was clear weather with no NFL games or holidays to conflict. The school announced a healthy crowd of 7,452, but an open records request revealed that actually only 3,614 showed up. Four upper deck sections had a combined three fans in them.

The average actual attendance for this year's nonconference games was 2,082. Dollar night on Dec. 22 (one in a long line of promotions the marketing department has concocted in order to boost attendance) brought in in 3,236 fans, the high mark of the first part of the schedule. The matchup against Oregon State attracted 1,549 students but only 1,175 scanned tickets.

Through nine games, Mississippi State's actual attendance is 20,274 — about 400 fewer than an average night at Kentucky's Rupp Arena — or 40,816 less than the school claims on its official statistics.

[jbcarol]

Sheldon Mickles ‏@MicklesAdvocate 14m14 minutes ago

#LSU coach Johnny Jones just drew his first technical of the season as a frustrating day continues (10:39, 2nd). Tigers down 24.

Official timeout -- Miss. State 76, #LSU 54 (7:21, 2nd).


MSU Men's Basketball ‏@HailStateMBK 5m5 minutes ago

MSU's last 20-point SEC road win was at . . . LSU in 2008.

[jbcarol]

 Randy Rosetta ‏@RandyRosetta 8m8 minutes ago

FINAL SCORE: State 95, LSU 78. Tigers early lack of energy too much to overcome. They fall to 1-2 in the SEC, 9-5 overall.

[jbcarol]

Gregg G. Ellis
🏀 ‏@MSUsportsGregg 9h9 hours ago

MSU won just two SEC road games a year ago. The Dogs have matched that number in their first two attempts. #HailState

[jbcarol]

Howland's team putting butts in seats?

Will need more than the edge.

Ben Howland ‏@Ben_Howland 9h9 hours ago

Hope to see you on Saturday in THE HUMP!! #HailState #WearBlack

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/HKellenbergerCL/status/820380055058653185

FINAL: Mississippi State 67, Texas A&M 59. Bulldogs have won 3 in a row, will play Kentucky in front of a (should be) packed Hump on Tuesday

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/MikeBBonner/status/820683327971741698

Howland pulled Lamar Peters close after Saturday's game against Texas A&M and hugged and kissed his freshman point guard.

"I said, 'Your dad would be really proud of you right now,'" Howland said.

Peters' father died on Wednesday. The Louisiana native started his third consecutive game but his production was never more important down the stretch. He scored four of Mississippi State's final six points in a game that was even closer than the 67-59 win over Texas A&M.

Peters finished with 14 points, including 11 of 11 from the free-throw line, to go with four assists and five steals.

"I just wanted to come out and play my same game," Peters said. "Be aggressive and control the tempo as the point guard of the team."

The excitement overwhelmed Peters in the final seconds of the game.

The freshman bounced on the tip of his toes and eventually pumped his fist as the buzzer sounded cemented MSU's first 3-1 start in league play since 2010. The Bulldogs improved to 12-4 for the first time since 2012.

Prior to the game, Peters sat and stared blankly from the visiting bench as his teammates went through pregame warmups. A different look covered his face during the game — a look of determination.

"I thought that Lamar did a fantastic job when you consider he did so many things to help us win other than jump shots," Howland said.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/HKellenbergerCL/status/833402741267513346

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State held Florida to literally half of its scoring output from its last game and still lost.

The Bulldogs took 23 3-pointers. Twenty-three! That's a lot. They made two.

With an Aric Holman dunk with 2:24 remaining, Mississippi State tied No. 13 Florida; OK...

Bulldogs are close, just not close enough.

They just are who they are, and right now that's a team that is good enough to hang with the best but not beat them. During the last five weeks Mississippi State has played the three best teams in the SEC and lost by seven points (Kentucky), four (South Carolina) and, against Florida, five.

This is where you can feel the frustration in coach Ben Howland's voice...

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/839663734545068033

"I thought we came out and played good defense again. And remember, during that losing streak, we lost a ton of close games. These guys have had great fight all the way through. Really proud of their effort. A different guy tonight, Xavian Stapleton in the second half, Tyson in the first half. It's someone different every night for us, and that's what we need as we try and advance in this tournament."

On who can break out against Alabama: "We need everyone to break out. Alabama is a very physical, tough team. They're the most physical team in the league. The biggest, the best rebounding. So, it's going to be a knockdown affair to try to beat them."

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/869577973569118208

[jbcarol]

State is headed to Madison Square Garden after beating Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Aric Holman wanted to come home. The Mississippi State Bulldogs wanted to go back on the road.

Both parties got want they wanted Tuesday night, with the Kentucky-bred Holman providing a huge boost off the bench as fourth-seeded MSU rolled to a 79-56 win over the third-seeded Louisville Cardinals in front of 10,718 frigid fans at the KFC YUM! Center.

Mississippi State (25-11) advances to next Tuesday's semifinals against Penn State (24-13), which upended Marquette in an earlier quarterfinal Tuesday. Louisville, playing under interim coach David Padgett, finishes the season 24-13. Both NIT semifinals and the championship will be played at legendary Madison Square Garden in New York.

In order to make that happen, coach Ben Howland's Bulldogs had to win two road games against power-five conference teams in less than 72 hours.

"I can't say enough about our entire team and just how hard they worked to prepare for this," Howland said. "We wanted to go to New York City and go to the Garden — badly. And they displayed that in how they played today."