Video: Team Chemistry Will Help Howland, MSU Achieve Their Goals in 2017-18

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) — With 10 days remaining until the official start of the 2017-18 campaign, third-year Mississippi State coach Ben Howland and select players met with media members on Tuesday at the Mize Pavilion.

Howland welcomes 16 players to the court, including 11 that are on scholarship.

The Bulldogs, coming off a 16-16 campaign, return four starters, including preseason All-SEC selection Quinndary Weatherspoon and Lamar Peters, who was tabbed to the SEC All-Freshmen Team last year.

Mississippi State opens the season at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 10 against Alabama State. On Thursday, the Bulldogs play West Florida at 7 p.m. in the final exhibition game of the year. The SEC Network+ will carry the game live.

TICKET INFO
Tickets are on sale now online at www.hailstate.com/tickets or by calling 1-888-GO-DAWGS. Fans can purchase tickets to the Nov. 10 season-opening doubleheader by clicking the men’s basketball single-game tickets link on hailstate.com/tickets.

Below are quotes from Howland, Quinndary Weatherspoon, Nick Weatherspoon, Lamar Peters, Xavian Stapleton, Tyson Carter, Aric Holman and Abdul Ado.

Ben Howland

On early season ranking predictions …

“I never did get into the preseason ranking predictions. My biggest thing is to stay healthy. We have 11 players on scholarship, and one of them is out right now. A pretty important guy, and that is Abdul. He has been out two weeks today. He ran a bit yesterday, at full speed for the first time since the injury. I’m hoping he’ll be back. Our first game is in 10 days, and there is a chance he will not play in that first game. We are being very conservative with him with the quad and hip flexors, so that there is no reinjury once he does come back. We are very excited about the coming season and looking forward to putting our best foot forward each day. Our first opportunity to do that is Thursday night against West Florida.”

On this year’s offense …

“We want to push it every time we get the opportunity. Our advantage is in numbers and in being quick. We want to create offense with our defense and try to create some turnovers. If we don’t have good shots early on, then we need to be patient and become better screeners. If you go back to the Nebraska game, we need to look back and be grading screens. In grading those screens, the best ones for our fours and fives was 5-18. We need to become better screeners. Sometimes, if a guy is coming too fast and he’s not waiting on the screen or slowing down, it doesn’t allow the screener to sit. This is a point of emphasis for the officials. The biggest emphasis is to create for others and make the extra pass. For example, in our scrimmage on Saturday, we only had two players that made assists. Lamar [Peters] and Q [Weatherspoon] each had an assist from the whole day. Their team, for example, had nine players with assists. So again, it comes down to guys reading and making plays for others.”

On the team chemistry …

“That is a key, because if you have chemistry within the team that should translate to the floor. Translating in a way that means making the extra pass. When you look at the NBA, every player is able to make the extra pass that will make their other teammate look good. That is what they want in the NBA. The best players are those who make others around them better. It is a positive when you have guys that can do that. Typically, we have been a team that tries to set up others. We are young, and we get so excited in the game that we try to do it all on our own. Instead we need to let the game come to us. That is very important.”

G – Quinndary Weatherspoon – Jr.
On having his brother on the team …

“It’s good. This is my third time playing with him – two years in high school and now. He’s really improved from the two years I’ve played with him in high school. So, it’s going to be an exciting thing to happen.

On his advice to new comers …
“It’s really not too much. You can tell them a lot but it’s really when you get out there and see it for yourself. I know when I was a freshman, those seniors tried to tell me things that I needed to look out for and other things like that. I really didn’t get that full experience until I got out there and played.”

G – Lamar Peters – So.
On self-improvement …
“I made a big step. My biggest thing is just getting in shape – working out and conditioning.”

On his outlook for this year’s team …
“I am ready to lead this team and work with these guys. These guys are great. Everybody are great shooters. Xavian can work real hard. Now, we get to see what Abdul is made of. I mean, I know he had a lot of injuries, but he can help us be a better defensive team.”

On team’s chemistry …
“Our chemistry is made for us. Everybody is going to feed off each other. Everybody’s coming along and working hard. We weren’t satisfied with last season. Last season, we had a losing season. Well, we were 16-16, that’s not losing. We didn’t make the NCAA Tournament. That’s our goal; to make it there. In order to make it there, we got to have good team chemistry, work together and work hard. I am just trying to be a leader and lead my team. Guys get along much better. Guys hang out and go by each other’s houses. Last year we didn’t have that much team chemistry – everybody was kind of distant. We worked on that and got better.”

G – Nick Weatherspoon – Fr.
On word of advice from Q …
“He told me that I have to be more serious coming in on a higher level like college. I have to be more serious about some of the things that I do and get in the gym more.”

On being able to play with his brother …
“Everybody don’t get to play with their brother so that’s one of the things I am very blessed to have this year with him.”

G – Xavian Stapleton – Jr.

On his health and outlook for the season …

“I feel great about my health. This season we have a good team. We got a good chance to make that run to get to the tournament.”

On his ability to elevate at 100 percent …

“I feel like no one my size and my height that can jump with me. That has always been an attribute I have that I can jump that high. Overall, I just feel good. My knees are not giving me any problems. I just feel like I can get up again.”

On the team chemistry and how that can translate on the court …

“This year everybody is for the team. No one is playing for themselves, everybody is for the team. I feel like once we bite into what coach tells us (shot fakes, extra passes) there won’t be too many teams who can play with us.”

G – Tyson Carter – So.

On advice to newcomers …

“You cannot take any opponent lightly. Everybody that we play against is good. With the SEC, you can have no off games.

On being comfortable with the system …

“I got a year under my belt, and I did not know what to expect last year.”

On being consistent with shooting …

“It will have a lot to do with my confidence. I feel like my confidence grew with experience.

F – Aric Holman – Jr.

On his own gains over the past year…

“I would say being confident on the offensive side. Usually I have been the rim protector with rebounding, but with Abdul [Ado] I can be more confident on the offensive side now since we have more defensive presence on our team.

F – Abdul Ado – Fr.

On being able to speak up to his teammates…

“It gets to a point you have to stand up and just be like STOP. I get respect from my mom, it is something. If you are older than me I give you respect. There are a lot of things I have not learned yet.”

On the difficulty of the last couple of weeks…

“When I got hurt, I was like I can’t be getting hurt again. I set out a whole season. I have had to learn to be patient. The past two weeks haven’t been any problems due to rehab and doing the right things to be back.”