As Egg on the Court looms, two guys are doing more for their teams at an important time

• The SEC is deeper this season, currently No. 1 in conference net rankings. The time for the Rebels and Bulldogs to handle their business is now.

If John Cohen’s departure from the Athletics Director’s job and a college sports lifetime at Mississippi State took people by surprise, he at least left the Bulldogs with a nice gift while heading to Auburn in the fall of 2022.

He gave them Chris Jans as basketball coach a few months prior.

Jans’ first two Bulldogs’ teams earned NCAA bids, but he’s had State really rolling in this, his third season.

That’s in spite of Saturday’s 95-90 loss to Kentucky, State’s second loss of the season.

In a game with seven ties and 13 lead changes every run by each team was answered. Kentucky, shooting an incredible 50% from 3-point range – made the last run before time ran out.

The Bulldogs went into the game ranked No. 14, and with the Wildcats at No. 6, two top-15 teams took the floor at Humphrey Coliseum for the first time in 22 years.

There will be two ranked teams again when Ole Miss visits, and while both have had great starts, both could be coming off midweek losses.

State plays at No. 2 Auburn Tuesday, Ole Miss at No. 5 Alabama the same day.

Coaches and players often tell us the need to focus on the game at hand, and for them that is indeed important. Luckily, that’s never applied to me.

When you look at these two teams, one player that sets State apart is Cam Matthews.

There are good guards on both rosters, maybe a few more of them at Ole Miss.

But everybody doesn’t have a weapon like Cam Matthews.

Before the last two games Matthews, a COVID senior, was the occasional double-figure scorer. Sometimes it happened, and if it did was likely to be low-teensish.

This week he hit 16 at Vanderbilt and a career-high-tying 19 against Kentucky. The Wildcats presented a matchup against a taller opponent that for some could have been a problem.

But Matthews countered with aggression and physicality. He added 10 rebounds, three assists and six steals in one of his most complete college games.

He’s had multiple assists in 13 out of 16 games this season, and State is 22-9 when he scores in double figures.

There’s plenty of help for Matthews, but he’s different.

Dia’s development a boost for Ole Miss

The Ole Miss version is Malik Dia.

A 6-foot-9, 250-pound transfer from Belmont, Dia, like Matthews, has been a productive scorer the last two games.

Like Matthews, he’d been the occasional double-figure guy but last week at Arkansas and at home against LSU he transformed into something much more. He became a more consistent finisher in the paint.

He lacks Matthews’ physicality, but the 3-point line is a much more real part of his game, enough that resources need to be committed when Dia cranks one up.

He was 2-for-4 from 3 against LSU, Matthews 2-for-3 against Kentucky, but neither of Dia’s makes required him to call “bank.”

If you’re looking for common opponents to get an idea of how the Bulldogs and Rebels match up, may I present the Memphis Tigers.

They were ranked No 21 when State dominated there on Dec. 21, winning 79-66. The Bulldogs were lights out in the first half, shooting 9-for-18 from 3 and building a 48-32 lead.

They hit just 1-for-9 from the arc in the second half, but they retained their defensive intensity, and the Tigers couldn’t recover.

A week later in Memphis the Tigers pulled away in the second half against Ole Miss to win 87-70.

Dia was 4-for-7 from the floor and finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

The Memphis athletes guarded the Ole Miss athletes and held the shooters in check.

That was the last pre-conference game, and Ole Miss has won three-straight since.

The Rebels begin the week with four Quad 1 wins, the same number they had at the end of the 2018-2019 season, their last NCAA Tournament bid.

Matthews and Dia are unlikely to match up against one another in Starkville Saturday.

NCAA hopefuls try to navigate deeper SEC

But the SEC is deeper this season, currently No. 1 in conference net rankings. It’s going to take a little more to rise to the top and probably will take more than four Quad 1 wins to hear your name called on Selection Sunday. Deserving teams will be left out, as they always are.

The time to handle your resume business is not with some magical run at the end of the season when there’s no margin for error because of previous missteps. The time is now in games like the ones State and Ole Miss play this week.

Players are going to have to elevate.

Right now, Matthews and Dia are doing that for their teams.