How March Madness drives Tolu Smith to deliver when Mississippi State basketball needs him

Stefan Krajisnik and Paul Skrbina, Mississippi Clarion Ledger
·3 min read

When Mississippi State basketball didn't get shots to fall in the second half Thursday, when it turned the ball over multiple times to let Florida retake the lead in the final seconds of overtime, when it needed a win to lock up its March Madness hopes ...

The answer was Tolu Smith. MSU’s All-SEC first-team forward always was going to be the answer.

He’s why MSU beat Florida 69-68 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament for a rematch with No. 1 seed Alabama on Friday (noon, ESPN). He’s the reason Mississippi State is likely headed to the NCAA Tournament after a 1-7 start in conference play.

“It’s a luxury to have him” first-year Bulldogs coach Chris Jans said after the win at Bridgestone Arena. “In the fall, I said … that if we wanted to have the year that we all wanted to have, he’d be an SEC first team player. And he was. He delivered.”

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For the nation’s worst 3-point shooting team, Smith has meant everything. His presence in the post allows Mississippi State to play its inside-out game. Even when teams know the ball is going to Smith and they throw multiple defenders his way, it hasn’t stopped him.

The second-most used player in SEC play, according to KenPom, has been relentless en route to 15.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. It’s little surprise he sealed the victory in the most chaotic moments of a game taking place during a month known for craziness.

Mississippi State led by six in the final minute of overtime. However, former MSU signee Riley Kugel wasn’t done trying to play spoiler for a Florida team well out of the NCAA Tournament picture.

Kugel score five points in a 7-0 run to give Florida a lead with 11 seconds to go. The Bulldogs’ struggle to break the Gators’ press led to a pair of agonizing turnovers which nearly diminished MSU’s hopes at The Big Dance.

However, without Jans taking a timeout, Mississippi State point guard Dashawn Davis took the ball as the clock ticked below 10 seconds. He went coast-to-coast to get to the basket where he quickly dumped a pass to Smith for an easy lay-up.

“Honestly, man, I though Dashawn was going to lay it up,” Smith said. “At the last minute, he passed it to me. It was a great play on his part.”

“It was me playing on instinct,” Davis added.

Smith’s bucket − the final one on an afternoon where he scored a career-high 28 points − gave MSU a one-point edge it didn’t let slip. However, had it not been for Smith’s other 26 points, Mississippi State would’ve never had a chance.

The Bulldogs had a stretch between the end of the first half and start of the second half where they missed 25 of 30 field goals. That allowed a lead as large as 14 to slip to a three-point edge for the Gators.

Smith stepped up from there, scoring 19 points in the second half and overtime. It was a performance which backed up Smith’s mantra throughout the season: He’s not leaving college without going dancing.

"It's a surreal feeling," Smith told SEC Network postgame. "It's hard to grasp right now."

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: How Tolu Smith lifted Mississippi State with March Madness in balance