MSU guards prepared to battle bigs for boards
STARKVILLE — A small scar dissects Gavin Ware’s right eyebrow. It’s a wound suffered in one of the hundreds of battles he’s fought within the paint of the Southeastern Conference.
“You’ve gotta have that mindset of just being a dog if you’re going in there and rebounding,” Ware said. “If you come in and rebound, you’ve gotta have the mindset where you don’t know who is going to try and take you out.”
Mississippi State began Wednesday’s practice with perimeter drills on one side of the court and post players on the other. Ware and sophomore Fallou Ndoye were the only players working in the paint.
Ndoye executed layup drills with white tape wrapped around his wrist, a sprained ankle and a broken nose. Ware is MSU’s only healthy option at center entering its scrimmage against UAB on Saturday.
“The post is where I get my grits and gravy on,” Ware said. “I just have to maintain and stay poised and stay confident.”
Johnny Zuppardo, Travis Daniels and Demetrius Houston have all played power forward in the offseason and will see time in the post once the season starts Nov. 13 against Eastern Washington. The trio identifies more as stretch-fours than conventional power forwards like Ware.
Daniels led the group last year, averaging 3.9 boards per game.
“Every night, night in and night out, we have to win the battle of the boards,” Bulldogs coach Ben Howland said. “So that’s going to be one of our biggest challenges as a team is our ability to rebound.”
Mississippi State lost Aric Holman and his 6-foot-10 frame until at least January. It’s possible the true freshman could miss the entire season with a knee injury. Howland said it’s too early to predict a timetable for Holman. Fellow freshman Joe Strugg, who is 6-foot-9, is out with a shin injury.
The ailments left the Bulldogs with two players — Ware and Ndoye — taller than 6-foot-8.
“It’s going to be critical, especially for the guards (to rebound),” Howland said. “When you look at our team, we’re not an imposing team physically in terms of our size. You’ll see us play small out there a lot where we play three guards out there.”
Senior Craig Sword has brought the same athletic ability he flashed during Maroon Madness when he leaped over Ndoye in the dunk contest.
“You have to be a dog if you’re going to get a rebound,” Sword said. “You have to be mentally in it. Coach Howland keeps preaching go to the glass, go to glass, go to the glass.”
As a sophomore, Sword averaged a career-high 3.8 rebounds per game.
He averaged 2.8 rebounds last year with an injured back while I.J. Ready averaged two boards. Incoming freshman Malik Newman grabbed 5.7 rebounds as a senior at Callaway High.
“In high school, you're probably the most athletic player on the court so it’s not that hard to get you six or seven rebounds,” Newman said. “Out there, one through five is strong, athletic and fast. So it’s kind of hard to get in there with the big guys.”
Through about a month of practices Sword hasn’t had a problem ripping away rebounds in the paint. He’s crashing the glass more than his previous three years at Mississippi State. He’s also healthier than at any point in his Bulldog career.
“I can jump high. I’m quicker jumping off the ground,” Sword said. “I have a chance to get a rebound every time the ball goes up.”
He’s not afraid to remind his teammates of it either.
“They talk so much trash to us about how they’re going to rebound the ball more,” Ware said. “There has been a few times where Chicken (Sword) has gotten more rebounds than me. That won’t hardly ever happen again because I pride myself on defensive and offensive rebounding.”
Sword, Mississippi State’s leading scorer the past three years, has his sights on edging out Ware, the team’s leading rebounder during the same span.
“I think Gavin’s still got a little animosity because I block his shot every day in practice,” Sword said. “He can’t rebound over me. I tell him that over and over.”
Contact Michael Bonner at mbonner@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @MikeBBonner on Twitter.