Mississippi State @ Cincinnati preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 18, 2008 ) Mississippi St. 63, Cincinnati 75

Recent subpar performances from its best players has dropped Cincinnati out of the top 25 rankings. Getting back there will require better ball handling - and that starts with a Tuesday night encounter with a visiting Mississippi State team that comes in with an unblemished record but is having its own turnover problems.

The Bearcats were in the thick of it against No. 5 Florida in the Never Forget Tribute Classic in Newark, N.J., on Saturday, but committed a whopping 21 turnovers while ultimately falling short 66-60 for their second straight loss following a seven-game winning streak. "We've got good players turning the ball over, which is a big, big problem," Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin said after the game. "It's hard to win when you turn the ball over, nearly impossible to win. If we had won this game somehow with the turnover line it would have been a modern miracle." Getting back into the top 25 won't require anything miraculous - Cincinnati earned the most votes of any team not in the rankings - but Tuesday's opponent is no pushover. The Bulldogs ran their season-opening winning streak to eight games with a 95-62 rout of Division II North Georgia.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2

ABOUT MISSISSIPPI STATE (8-0): The Bulldogs can't exactly boast about the strength of their schedule to date, and are probably fortunate to still be unbeaten despite committing an average of 15.3 turnovers per game - tied with Idaho State for 279th among 351 Division I schools. But Mississippi State does plenty of other things well; it ranks 34th in the nation in shooting percentage (49.6) and averages 6.6 blocked shots per game, tied for the sixth-highest rate in the country. Tyson Carter leads five players in double figures at 14 points per game, but had just two against Northern Georgia after racking up 55 in his previous two games.

ABOUT CINCINNATI (7-2): Cronin clearly wasn't happy with his team's effort in losses to nationally-ranked Xavier and Florida, suggesting that winning made his team "soft" and adding that "it makes you arrogant and it makes your players content." Gary Clark leads the team in scoring at 13.2 ppg and had nine points and 13 rebounds in the loss to the Gators; he's also at 82.5 percent from the free-throw line but has hit on just 3-of-6 attempts over his past two games. Jacob Evans is a close second in the pecking order at 13.1 ppg and has reached double figures in five straight games, highlighted by a 23-point effort against Xavier.

TIP-INS

1. Tuesday marks Mississippi State's only road encounter among its first 14 games of the season.

2. The Bearcats are tied for fourth in Division I in scoring margin at plus-21.7 points per game.

3. Teams shoot just 36.8 percent vs. Cincinnati; only nine teams have better defensive rates.

PREDICTION: Cincinnati 74, Mississippi State 66