SMU has rolled through the early part of its schedule.
The Mustangs (7-0) have just one victory by less than than 11 points after playing all of their games at home.
Now they will face Mississippi State (3-3) on Friday night in Starkville, Miss.
“A road game is a road game no matter where you play,” SMU coach Andy Enfield said. “You have to prepare a little differently. You have to be able to handle the fans and the atmosphere of a road game. I think our guys are looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to it.”
This will be the first of four consecutive games away from home for the Mustangs, who will visit No. 24 Vanderbilt before having neutral-site games against Texas A&M and LSU.
“The good thing is we have six experienced players on our team that have been there,” Enfield said. “They’ve been in hostile environments. They’ve played a lot of road games in their careers. We were good on the road last year. We were 7-3 in the ACC, which was outstanding,”
Boopie Miller is averaging 20.3 points per game and Jaron Pierre Jr. is contributing 17.6 for SMU this season.
Mississippi State coach Chris Jans hopes his team’s most recent game winds up being a precursor for the entire season — featuring a slow start followed by ultimate success.
Jans said he “didn’t know exactly where we would be” after losing consecutive games to Kansas State (98-77 score) and New Mexico (80-78) in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
The Bulldogs trailed visiting New Orleans by 13 points with less than six minutes remaining Monday but scrambled back to force overtime, then prevailed 81-78 on Amier Ali’s 3-pointer in the final seconds.
Jans said the start to the game was “pretty good,” but “it wasn’t so good for a long stretch of the game after that.”
“If we can hang our hat on anything,” Jans said, “it’s that there was zero quit in the players. There was zero splintering. Those kids kept fighting, and we got a little bit of momentum. At the end of the day they just scratched, clawed and just found a way to get themselves back in the game.”
–Field Level Media
