Mississippi
Mississippi State basketball vs South Carolina: Predictions, picks, injury updates and odds
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State basketball had its way earlier in the season against South Carolina, trouncing the Gamecocks by 35 points in the SEC opener at Humphrey Coliseum.
South Carolina hasn’t won since that game three weeks ago. Bulldogs coach Chris Jans knows what happened in that matchup won’t necessarily dictate the outcome when No. 14 MSU (15-4, 3-3 SEC) plays at South Carolina (10-9, 0-6) on Saturday (noon, SEC Network).
“We’ve been around it long enough to understand that each game is its own little chapter in your season and what happened in that game really is fairly irrelevant weeks later,” he said Thursday. “Everybody gets better as the season progresses.”
Here’s what to know about the matchup.
South Carolina is coming off a heartbreaking loss
The Gamecocks haven’t won since they lost to Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum on Jan. 4. In fact, that game started what’s now a six-game losing streak.
Three of those losses are against top 10 teams in Alabama, Auburn and Florida. South Carolina lost by three points to Auburn, three points to Vanderbilt and one point to Florida on Wednesday. It led for 38 minutes, 32 seconds of game time against Florida before allowing a game-winner by Will Richard with five seconds remaining.
“They’re snakebitten almost,” Jans said.
South Carolina has the worst offense in the SEC at 71.5 points per game. It hasn’t scored more than 74 points since Dec. 17. The Gamecocks are also last in the SEC with 5.2 steals per game.
Mississippi State contained Collin Murray-Boyles last game
Collin Murray-Boyles is viewed as a legitimate NBA prospect for the upcoming draft. However, the 6-foot-8 sophomore forward did not play well against MSU earlier this season. He had five points on 2-of-9 shooting with 10 rebounds but six turnovers and was a minus-27.
Murray-Boyles has scored in double figures in four straight games, including 25 points against Auburn.
“I got as much respect for him as anybody in the league,” Jans said. “I love how he plays the game.”
Mississippi State needs a faster starts on the road
Mississippi State has lost its past two road games to Tennessee and Auburn. Slow starts were an issue in both of them.
Against Auburn, MSU fell behind 10-0. And against Tennessee, it trailed 8-0. The Bulldogs never led in either game.
“As a staff, we’ve talked about it since the Tennessee game, and we need to fix it from the top down,” Jans said.
Mississippi State vs South Carolina odds
BetMGM has not posted betting lines for this game.
Mississippi State vs South Carolina injury updates
South Carolina was without Jamarii Thomas and Myles Stute against Florida. Thomas, who’s second on the team in scoring, has been out since Jan. 8 because of a knee sprain. Stute is out indefinitely with a blood clot.
Mississippi State guard Kanye Clary hasn’t played since Nov. 29 because of a lower-leg injury.
How to watch Mississippi State vs South Carolina: Time, TV channel, live stream
Mississippi State vs South Carolina will air on SEC Network. Tipoff is scheduled for noon. Streaming is available via ESPN+.
Mississippi State vs South Carolina prediction, picks
Mississippi State 78, South Carolina 68: The Gamecocks need a win badly, but this doesn’t appear to be a favorable matchup. MSU should be able to limit Murray-Boyles again with Cameron Matthews.
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
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They don’t ask how, they just ask how many. #14 Mississippi State basketball survived a tricky road test against South Carolina, prevailing 65-60 in overtime. It was a sluggish offensive day for the Bulldogs, but they eventually found enough momentum to grab a 50-36 lead with 8:50 left in regulation.
Unfortunately, a run of ugly offense would lead to enough easy buckets for South Carolina to get right back into it. The Gamecocks would close the game on a 19-5 run to force overtime. That sloppiness would continue in the extra period, and despite retaking the lead, State looked prime to give it right back. Luckily, they held on and walked away with a much-needed victory.
The Bulldog defense ultimately did enough
After allowing an average of 83 PPG in the last four, holding an opponent to 60 points (55 in regulation) was a welcome sight from the Bulldogs. State held South Carolina to 29.3% shooting and just 20% from three. They forced 19 turnovers. Outside of free throws and second chance opportunities, the Gamecocks couldn’t do anything on offense. Now, South Carolina is not a good offensive team, but this was a chance at a get-right game for State defensively, and they capitalized.
Insistence on three-point shooting is hurting Mississippi State basketball
This game could’ve been a lot less stressful if State wasn’t shooting so many threes. The Bulldogs attempted 26 threes, making only six of them. Too be fair, many of those looks were open, and you’d think this roster would be suited to take advantage. But as we’ve seen lately, this team as a whole is ice-cold from distance.
Meanwhile they’re finding success attacking the paint. State shot 57% from two and was at their most effective when they got the ball to KeShawn Murphy and Michael Nwoko. Had that been the approach for the entirety of the game, the Bulldogs likely win easily.
Despite a stressful game, Mississippi State basketball earning another road win should not be dismissed
It wasn’t pretty, and the opponent makes the performance a bit more frustrating. But Mississippi State fans should not dismiss this win as insignificant. Road wins in the SEC, even against South Carolina, are incredibly hard to come by. This same Gamecocks team went wire-to-wire with Top 5 squads in Auburn and Florida. They’re better than their record indicates.
State now has a 4-2 road record, with two of those wins coming in SEC play. The only SEC team with more road wins on the year is Alabama. That’s big for their resume and could be a factor that boosts their seeding come Selection Sunday.
A beloved figure in Mississippi State Bulldogs athletics is sadly no longer with us. On January 23, former live Mississippi State mascot “Jak” (Bully XXI), passed away according to his caretaker, Lisa Pritchard.
Jak spent eight years as the mascot for the university from April of 2015 until his retirement in April of 2023. Jak came from a long line of Mississippi State mascots. His grandfather, “Tonka” (Bully XIX), and father, “Champ” (Bully XX), each served terms as the school’s mascot from the early 2000s through the early 2010s.
Jak’s namesake is also of Mississippi State legend. He was named in honor of the great Jack Cristil, the longtime radio voice of the Bulldogs who passed away shortly before Jak’s birth in fall of 2014. Jak’s formal name is “Cristil’s Golden Price”.
In 2023, Jak passed over the reigns to Mississippi State’s current live mascot, Bully XXII, “Dak”.
Jak was the mascot for some of the greatest moments in Mississippi State Bulldogs history
Jak’s run as the mascot for Mississippi State will be hard to be topped. On the gridiron, he roamed the sidelines for a Bulldog football program that totaled 58 wins, including four Egg Bowl victories, and made a bowl game in all eight of his seasons.
He saw Mississippi State women’s basketball put together three-straight 30-win seasons in which they won two SEC regular season titles, one SEC tournament title, snapped UConn’s 111-game winning streak, and played in two national title games.
And of course on the diamond, Jak saw a Bulldog baseball program that won a SEC title, made three trips to the College World Series, and won the school’s first ever national championship in 2021. Needless to say, Jak will always be associated with some of the greatest moments in Mississippi State history.
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Did a Mississippi man grow the world’s tallest pepper plant?
Henry Pope, the lead grower and plant geneticist for Mississippi Foundation for Renewable Energy, worked to cross-pollinate specific peppers for seven years. He thinks he has a world record holding cayenne and is waiting on confirmation from the Guinness Book of World Records.
Pope started the project seven years earlier and six generations of plants earlier. “The original parent plants were a variety of long cayenne produced by myself for Mississippi Foundation for Renewable Energy and a himo togarashi pepper.”
He said he spends a lot of time working in gardens, the greenhouse and a lab looking to develop open-pollinated, edible plants. Growing a record-holder wasn’t the original goal, but it became clear the opportunity was in sight with this one.
“We called it the record plant because I suppose we always assumed it would be the world’s tallest pepper plant (or I did), but that was more of a joke really,” he said.
How big is the world’s tallest pepper plant?
According to Guinness, the current title is held by Laura Liang in Irvine, California. Her cayenne pepper plant was 16 feet tall when it was two years old in 1999.
How tall is the Mississippi pepper plant?
Pope’s plant measured as almost 16.5 feet tall. If validated by the Guinness Book of World Records, it could set the new world record.
How did they measure it?
In November, four men measured and identified the plant using video and photos to record its height. Pope identified them as:
- Willie Roses (an expert in measurements).
- Willie C. R. Perteet (County supervisor in Attala County).
- Tobias Campbell (forester).
- Mark Terkanian (a plant specialist, who holds a Bachelor of Science in plant sciences from the University of Massachusetts).
They took video while one person ran a tape measure to the ground and someone held the end at soil level. In addition to continuous video, they took still camera shots at the top and bottom to verify where the tool was.
Story continues below video.
Does he have gardening advice?
For Pope, the goal is sustainable, edible plants that help people be more self-reliant. His mother was a horticulturist, and his father ran a landscaping company and exotic animal breeding operation. The combination of experiences, paired with a passion for chemistry, led him to approaching plants from a scientific angle.
“My family and I live self sufficiently and have for a very long time. The work I do now is the cumulative product of these experiences in my life,” Pope said.
If you want a mega plant, he said, start with selective breeding.
“Learn how to save seeds from your crops in a professional manner. Anyone can do this with some research or simple training. We teach people to do this almost daily. Observe your crop for plants that have certain characteristics you desire. Save seed from that plant for a successive planting. Isolate these plants from others so they don’t cross pollinate, and repeat this action for multiple generations until you have something similar to what you want,” he said.
Or people can give a lot of care to stable-variety seeds sold by existing companies.
“You can do anything you put your mind to. In my profession, I see people do just that every day in various ways,” he said.
Mississippi man isn’t done with the project
“Sometimes when you attempt to achieve one particular goal, another opportunity arises. This happens quite often really, not just in genetics, but in most scientific endeavors,” Pope said.
The plan was to develop a plant for vertical gardening, like on balconies or in small yards — or something that can be trained horizontally on a fence.
“Opportunity for creating a world record of any kind was never the goal. The goal was the same as it always is for us, to produce a natural variety of edible plant that is beneficial to those who wish to become less reliant on the grocery store, but when working with genetics observation of the characteristics you have to work with is the first step,” Pope said.
The plant submitted to Guinness is an sixth generation plant. He plans to invest several more years into the project.
“I will consider the project complete when I reach a 12th generation. I believe through further selective breeding that I can beat my own record in the future,” Pope said.
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@gannett.com.
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