FAYETTEVILLE -- Mississippi State's Quinndary Weatherspoon ranks among the best players in the Southeastern Conference.
Weathersoon and his Mississippi State Bulldogs (12-1, 0-0 SEC) teammates await the Arkansas Razorbacks tonight in Starkville, Miss. The 6-4 junior guard was voted Preseason Second-Team All-SEC.
Tip-off is 8 p.m. and televised by the SEC Network (Resort Channel 79) at the Bulldogs' Humphrey Coliseum.
It's the SEC opener for coach Ben Howland's Bulldogs, who frosted non-conference cupcake North Florida, 109-81, Saturday in Starkville while coach Mike Anderson's Razorbacks opened their SEC season with a 95-93 overtime win over the No. 19 Tennessee Volunteers at Bud Walton Arena.
Arkansas guards Daryl Macon, 33 points, and Jaylen Barford, 28 points, combined for a stunning 61 points against Tennessee last Saturday. Weatherspoon outscored their combined output when Arkansas hosted Mississippi State last season in Fayetteville.
Weatherspoon's 25 points were augmented by 13 points and 11 rebounds by returning 6-10 junior forward Aric Holman and 14 points by guard Lamar Peters, who now comes off of the bench as Howland's sixth man. They led an 84-78 upset over the eventual 26-10 Razorbacks.
Freshman point guard Nick Weatherspoon, Quinndary's brother, 6-11 forward Abdul Ado and returning 6-3 sophomore guard Tyson Carter join the elder Weatherspoon and Holman in tonight's Mississippi State lineup.
"(Quinndary Weatherspoon) is a tremendous player," Anderson said Sunday. "He can create for himself. They do a good job of running him off a lot of different screens. He's a versatile player. Very athletic and real steady. He's a good passer, a tremendous rebounder at that size.
"They've got some other guys that are playing well. The Holman kid, he's a versatile kid that can go inside and outside. He had a pretty good game here last year. About a 6-8, 6-9 kid that attacks the glass. The Carter kid can really shoot the basketball. They play a lot of guys. They're defending, they're scoring. They're playing with a lot of confidence."
A 61-59 victory in Starkville over the usually stellar Dayton Flyers (5-7) and a 65-50 road loss to Cincinnati (12-2) were Mississippi State's marquee non-conference opponents. The Bulldogs haven not played a non-conference schedule to the same caliber as Arkansas, which counted Oklahoma (11-1), UConn (7-6), Minnesota (12-3) and Bucknell (7-7) among its victories. The Razorbacks' only losses were to North Carolina (12-2) and Houston (12-2).
However, what the Bulldogs' "Q" did to the Hogs last season in Fayetteville ought to have Arkansas on its "p's and q's" in Starkville tonight, especially since Arkansas still smarts from a 91-65 rout by administered by Houston the last time the Razorbacks ventured away from Arkansas on Dec. 2. Anderson said his team must first expect the worst on the road and respond with its best.
"We're going to get punched," Anderson said. "We've got to punch back, and then, I think, we cannot panic. We've got to deal with the adversity.
"And how do you deal with adversity? Come down and execute. Get stops on defense. You've got to shoot the ball well. Shooting cures a lot of ills when you're on the road. You've got to get to the free throw line as much as they do, and you've got to make free throws."
While overcoming Tennessee in overtime at Bud Walton was a major accomplishment, Anderson implied the Hogs cannot rest on its laurels that are not even laurels yet, given they achieved just nine assists to Tennessee's 17 while the Volunteers' bench outscored their bench, 33-5.
"Our assists total has got to go up, and we've got to get our bench very, very involved," Anderson said. "The other night, guys (senior guards Anton Beard of North Little Rock and Macon) played 42, 41 minutes. That's hard to do at the pace and the level that we want to play."
Arkansas (10-2, 1-0 SEC)
Player Pts. Rebs.
F-Dustin Thomas 6-8 senior 5.5 4.6
F-Daniel Gafford 6-11 freshman 11.9 6.4
G-Anton Beard 6-0 senior 11.9 2.9
G-Daryl Macon 6-3 senior 16.7 2.3
G-Jaylen Barford 6-3 senior 19.3 4.2
Mississippi State (12-1, 0-0 SEC)
F-Aric Holman 6-10 junior 13.1 7.3
F-Abdul Ado 6-11 freshman 6.3 6.9
G-Nick Weatherspoon 6-2 freshman 10.7 3.1
G-Tyson Carter 6-3 sophomore 11.3 1.4
G-Quinndary Weatherspoon 6-4 junior 14.2 6.0
Sports on 01/02/2018