College Basketball

[s1nglewing]

LSU is ridiculously bad

[rebmus]

1 hour ago, s1nglewing said:

LSU is ridiculously bad

So are South Carolina and Ole Miss.

 

LSU MAY be worst of the 3? We'll see. 

[Bulldogs4]

I felt like we had a chance tonight going into the game. The early brutal SEC schedule is paying dividends now. True we lost all four games to Tennessee/Bama but in three of the four games we played them, we had a chance to win. The last one @ Bama where we lead most of the game only to lose by three helped prepare this team for tonight. The 20K crowd never got us rattled. And that was big. 
 

Next big game is Kentucky. And it is still tough to beat them even when they are struggling. They still have elite talent. 
 

But a great win tonight on the road. Go Dawgs!!!

 

[MSTSatchmo]

Jans left New Mexico State at the right time.  That place is a mess and just cancelled the rest of the season. 

[Dawg83]

As of this morning, Lunardi has State in the NCAAT field and Kentucky just outside of it going into tomorrow night. Suffices to say that’s a huge game. Looking forward to being there.

[maroontide06]

48 minutes ago, Dawg83 said:

As of this morning, Lunardi has State in the NCAAT field and Kentucky just outside of it going into tomorrow night. Suffices to say that’s a huge game. Looking forward to being there.

Both the men and women are in the last 4 in.  They both need to keep winning to get off of the play-in games, but even if they stay there that's still a huge accomplishment regardless.

[Dawg83]

I think a 9-9 and conference is likely enough for State’s men to get in. That would mean going 4-2 in the last six. Just need to avoid bad losses (Ole Miss and South Carolina) and win a couple of the remaining toss ups (Kentucky, @Mizzou, A&M, @Vandy).

I’m less in the loop on the State women but they seem to be in a similar spot. Get to about 9 conference wins (currently 7-5) and you should be ok.

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Dawg83

[sportsmaniac10]

Getting close to march and pretty exciting to see Mississippi teams on both sides with chances to get into the NCAA tournament. Overall though looks like we may have more excitement from the women's teams. 

 

On the women's side, Jackson State leads the SWAC and great chance of winning 20 regular season games which is pretty huge for a SWAC team. They also played the #4 toughest non conference schedule. They won't be seeded high but hoping to see them at least scare someone in the first round like they did LSU last year. 

 

Southern Miss women are in the running for the Sun Belt regular season title, currently sitting in a tie for 4th and 2 games back of the lead (they won their 1 game against the team that is currently in first, Troy). The move to the sun belt seems to have been a great thing for the program so far. They'll have to win the conference tournament to get an NCAA bid but hopefully there will be some sort of post season tournament for them.

 

Ole Miss women have pretty much wrapped up an NCAA bid at this point, unless something catastrophic were to happen and they manage to lose out. They'd still be on the bubble though if that happened. They are currently 20-5 and 9-3 in SEC play but still have games at LSU, at Alabama, and home against South Carolina. Unfortunately the weak non conference schedule is hurting their predicted seed. right now expected to be 7/8 seed. Overall the SEC just not getting much respect outside of South Carolina and LSU. The LSU and South Carolina games are likely to be rough. But Ole Miss really needs a signature win to try and boost themselves up in the seeding. The thing i don't like about this Ole Miss team is they really haven't shown much fight in the bigger games this conference season. Every time Coach Yo goes to social media trying to get fans to show up, they go out on court and lay an egg. Ill be interested to see how much fight they show against LSU and South Carolina because even though the Tennessee score didn't look bad, the game was over after the first quarter and we looked flat most of the game. 

 

MSU women currently one of the last teams in. 18-7 overall and 7-5 in SEC play. But their finishing schedule is going to be brutal. At Mizzou and LSU, and home games against Alabama and Arkansas. None of those would be bad losses but all of those games will be tough to win. Probably need to split those games and win at least one in the sec tournament to feel ok on Selection Monday. That'd put them at 21-10 overall and I think the strongest point of their resume is no bad losses. Currently all 7 losses are Quad 1 teams. Again the SEC overall is just down and not getting much respect on the national level on the women's side this year so that is also what State is fighting against. 

 

On the men's side, the Kermit Davis era at Ole Miss should be coming to a close soon. He seems like a nice guy but his results at Ole Miss have been poor at best, especially considering that all you ever read is that they've signed their best recruiting classes/players in history during his tenure. 1 NCAA tournament appearance in his first season (with someone else's players) and 1 NIT bid and now a third losing season in his first five years. This current season is not over but has the potential to be the worst SEC record finish since the 1975-1976 season and the worst overall season record since the 1994-1995 season under Bob Evans. The other thing going against Kermit is the number of key players that transferred to other programs or players that were horrible at Ole Miss and transferred out and are now having stellar seasons/careers. There are at least 6 players I can think over that are now starters in other programs (Power 5 programs, mid majors, and small conference programs) and average double figures per game etc. Is Kermit too old school for the younger generation? Does his system just not fit in the modern age of college basketball? IDK. Personally though I don't think you are going to have sustained success in the SEC or any power 5 program with a game plan that is focused on grinding teams down and hanging your hat on defense. It takes too much energy and wreaks havoc on your team's ability to produce on the offensive end of the court and the game has become very much offense focused. It's too easy to get hot and take down a team that relies on defense (example A Virginia being the first 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed, example B Ole Miss upsetting #5 seed Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament during the Marshall Henderson days). 

 

I haven't watched the MSU men play much but hey, everything right now is extra for Coach Jans in his first year. NIT or NCAA bid, you have to see this season as a success. Still way too early to predict what's going to happen for him, but happy to see State back to winning some big games and being in the NCAA discussion. I think there are 2 things that worry me about Coach Jans. 1. I hear he's very defensively minded (take some notes from Kermit, you gotta be able score to maintain success) and 2. I am curious to see if any thing that gets dug up from the New Mexico State fiasco gets linked back to him. I guess time will tell. 

 

Then finally you got Southern Miss and please raise your hand if you thought Southern Miss was going to be the most successful Mississippi D1 program in men's basketball this season?? Certainly not me. 20-4 overall and 12-2 in the Sun Belt with a 2 game lead over the second place team. Of course there's no chance of an at large bid but a conference title in their first season is huge. One thing for USM moving forward though is if they want to even consider having a shot at an at-large bid is all the NAIA regular season games gotta go. They have no business having regular season games against William Carey or Mobile or Loyola New Orleans. Those are wasted games when you could be scheduling opponents that offer you opportunities to build a resume. I know they probably weren't expecting that to even be a possibility this year but just something to address moving forward. 

 

 

[maroontide06]

Was this like an old school newspaper article in the sports section?  At least it was a free read and frankly that took some time to write up.  Great job nonetheless.  (Even though it was from an OM point of view).

[rebmus]

Sportsmaniac10, that was quite a long post... but well thought out. 

 

Ole Miss men lost again tonight at Florida, no surprise there. 

The chances of Davis being at Ole Miss next year are between slim and none. I really hate that since I really have a lot of respect for Kermit and his family. I will wish them all well whether or not Kermit is the coach at Ole Miss going forward. 

 

 

[maroontide06]

If State could get some rebounds they might would have the lead, but they can’t a rebound to save their skin.

[rebmus]

MSU/KY was an interesting watch tonight with KY pulling out a road win. 

The first half looked like 2 competitive teams, the second half looked like 2 teams trying to lose. 

KY moved to the right side of the bubble while MSU moved to the wrong side of the bubble, still time for both teams to move up or down. 

 

OM would gladly trade places with either team this year, just pointing that out before the first response of "LOL Ole Miss". Ole Miss is just horrible this year.

[Bulldogs4]

Tough loss for State tonight. Give Kentucky credit for holding us off. But I like our fight and grit. Sometimes fortune goes against you and we had a few those plays that were just bad luck. Officiating was okay though they did miss a traveling call on UK at a critical juncture of the game. But that was not the reason we lost.

They beat us on the boards and then the ball seemed bounce Kentucky’s way tonight. 
 

Got to regroup and be ready to go to Oxford Saturday. And we will face Ole Miss at their best so it is going to be very difficult to win. 
 

[rebmus]

5 minutes ago, Bulldogs4 said:

And we will face Ole Miss at their best so it is going to be very difficult to win. 
 

"Ole Miss at their best", have you seen Ole Miss play this year?

[Dawg83]

That felt like a ton of State-Kentucky games I’ve watched over the years. Close, some questionable calls or no calls, and UK ends up winning late. Definitely not the first time I’ve seen this movie.

 

9-9 remains the goal. I said they needed a split of Arkansas and UK and they got it. Saturday in Oxford is an absolute must win for State, no doubt about it.

[Dawg83]

If you made me call it today I think State ends up 8-10 and goes to the NIT. But the path for the NCAAT is still there. My concern is that other than SC at home this is a pretty tough stretch with the majority of your remaining games on the road.

[MSTSatchmo]

10 minutes ago, Dawg83 said:

If you made me call it today I think State ends up 8-10 and goes to the NIT. But the path for the NCAAT is still there. My concern is that other than SC at home this is a pretty tough stretch with the majority of your remaining games on the road.

That sounds about right.   A pretty decent Missouri team on the road, Vandy in one of the hardest places to play, and a rivalry game on the road against an OM team with nothing to lose.  That along with an A&M team that just keeps winning.  Not super impressive,  but just keeps picking up wins.  
 

I’ve got State going 2-3 or 3-2 in the last 5.  The UF and UGA loses early were killer.   State is on the right track I believe going forward.  

[Dawg83]

I’ve said all along that the NIT is perfectly acceptable this year for a team that had zero expectations. Feel confident State will at least get that.

 

You’d love to see them in the Dance because I think their style of play lends itself to giving certain teams fits.

 

In other words, if you can get in the NCAAT, you may have a legitimate chance to win a game or two. But you gotta get there first and that may be tough.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Dawg83

[Bulldogs4]

The turning point, last night, to me was when we scored back to back with a dunk/lay up to go up 41-38. Davis was fouled but missed the and - one FT. I know it does not sound like much but it seemed to give UK a spark and it kind of killed our momentum. 
Later when Jeffries missed the front end of a one-and-one was also huge. Kentucky made their FT’s down the stretch though we did a great job of extending the game over the last few seconds. 
 

Tough road ahead but I still like this team. We will see how it goes starting first Saturday. 

 

[maroontide06]

The one blaring statistic that stands out that cost us the ball game was Kentucky 38 rebounds to Mississippi State 22 rebounds.  We took a big nap last night with the rebounds.  If we were to have gotten more rebounds, that would have resulted in more shot opportunities which in turn would lead to more points.  That was the ultimate dagger imo.

[Vott]

On 2/14/2023 at 11:33 PM, sportsmaniac10 said:

Getting close to march and pretty exciting to see Mississippi teams on both sides with chances to get into the NCAA tournament. Overall though looks like we may have more excitement from the women's teams. 

 

On the women's side, Jackson State leads the SWAC and great chance of winning 20 regular season games which is pretty huge for a SWAC team. They also played the #4 toughest non conference schedule. They won't be seeded high but hoping to see them at least scare someone in the first round like they did LSU last year. 

 

Southern Miss women are in the running for the Sun Belt regular season title, currently sitting in a tie for 4th and 2 games back of the lead (they won their 1 game against the team that is currently in first, Troy). The move to the sun belt seems to have been a great thing for the program so far. They'll have to win the conference tournament to get an NCAA bid but hopefully there will be some sort of post season tournament for them.

 

Ole Miss women have pretty much wrapped up an NCAA bid at this point, unless something catastrophic were to happen and they manage to lose out. They'd still be on the bubble though if that happened. They are currently 20-5 and 9-3 in SEC play but still have games at LSU, at Alabama, and home against South Carolina. Unfortunately the weak non conference schedule is hurting their predicted seed. right now expected to be 7/8 seed. Overall the SEC just not getting much respect outside of South Carolina and LSU. The LSU and South Carolina games are likely to be rough. But Ole Miss really needs a signature win to try and boost themselves up in the seeding. The thing i don't like about this Ole Miss team is they really haven't shown much fight in the bigger games this conference season. Every time Coach Yo goes to social media trying to get fans to show up, they go out on court and lay an egg. Ill be interested to see how much fight they show against LSU and South Carolina because even though the Tennessee score didn't look bad, the game was over after the first quarter and we looked flat most of the game. 

 

MSU women currently one of the last teams in. 18-7 overall and 7-5 in SEC play. But their finishing schedule is going to be brutal. At Mizzou and LSU, and home games against Alabama and Arkansas. None of those would be bad losses but all of those games will be tough to win. Probably need to split those games and win at least one in the sec tournament to feel ok on Selection Monday. That'd put them at 21-10 overall and I think the strongest point of their resume is no bad losses. Currently all 7 losses are Quad 1 teams. Again the SEC overall is just down and not getting much respect on the national level on the women's side this year so that is also what State is fighting against. 

 

On the men's side, the Kermit Davis era at Ole Miss should be coming to a close soon. He seems like a nice guy but his results at Ole Miss have been poor at best, especially considering that all you ever read is that they've signed their best recruiting classes/players in history during his tenure. 1 NCAA tournament appearance in his first season (with someone else's players) and 1 NIT bid and now a third losing season in his first five years. This current season is not over but has the potential to be the worst SEC record finish since the 1975-1976 season and the worst overall season record since the 1994-1995 season under Bob Evans. The other thing going against Kermit is the number of key players that transferred to other programs or players that were horrible at Ole Miss and transferred out and are now having stellar seasons/careers. There are at least 6 players I can think over that are now starters in other programs (Power 5 programs, mid majors, and small conference programs) and average double figures per game etc. Is Kermit too old school for the younger generation? Does his system just not fit in the modern age of college basketball? IDK. Personally though I don't think you are going to have sustained success in the SEC or any power 5 program with a game plan that is focused on grinding teams down and hanging your hat on defense. It takes too much energy and wreaks havoc on your team's ability to produce on the offensive end of the court and the game has become very much offense focused. It's too easy to get hot and take down a team that relies on defense (example A Virginia being the first 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed, example B Ole Miss upsetting #5 seed Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament during the Marshall Henderson days). 

 

I haven't watched the MSU men play much but hey, everything right now is extra for Coach Jans in his first year. NIT or NCAA bid, you have to see this season as a success. Still way too early to predict what's going to happen for him, but happy to see State back to winning some big games and being in the NCAA discussion. I think there are 2 things that worry me about Coach Jans. 1. I hear he's very defensively minded (take some notes from Kermit, you gotta be able score to maintain success) and 2. I am curious to see if any thing that gets dug up from the New Mexico State fiasco gets linked back to him. I guess time will tell. 

 

Then finally you got Southern Miss and please raise your hand if you thought Southern Miss was going to be the most successful Mississippi D1 program in men's basketball this season?? Certainly not me. 20-4 overall and 12-2 in the Sun Belt with a 2 game lead over the second place team. Of course there's no chance of an at large bid but a conference title in their first season is huge. One thing for USM moving forward though is if they want to even consider having a shot at an at-large bid is all the NAIA regular season games gotta go. They have no business having regular season games against William Carey or Mobile or Loyola New Orleans. Those are wasted games when you could be scheduling opponents that offer you opportunities to build a resume. I know they probably weren't expecting that to even be a possibility this year but just something to address moving forward. 

 

 

I agree on not playing mobile and Loyola. But I have to disagree on not playing William Carey. Both mens and womens teams from both squads enjoy that game. And the NCAA allows one game, maybe two games against NAIA or NCAA Division 2 teams that doe not count against your RPI rating. So I would keep William Carey on there. Maybe So Miss could let it be their one exhibition game they play every year.

[Dawg83]

As most expected, Lunardi has flip flopped State and Kentucky after last night. State is his first team out.

[Bulldogs4]

No surprise there. Loss last night hurts but we will see how things go from here. 

[rebmus]

MSU likely needs to win 4 of it's last 5 to get in the NCAA Tournament, which is certainly possible with the schedule left. Any other loss will need to likely be made up with a win in the SEC Tournament. 21 total wins keeps MSU in the strong conversation of a bid, anything less is NIT. 

 

Unless (very doubtful) MSU loses 3 or 4 of it's last 5 and misses the NIT, it's obviously a successful season for the first year head coach. It will be interesting to see how MSU progresses the next few years, I see a lot of potential based on what we've seen this year. 

 

[Dawg83]

I think Jans is the best X’s and O’s coach State has had since Richard Williams. I think this type of year will likely be the norm, maybe even the floor. His ceiling will be determined by how well he can recruit.

 

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I know OM fans have checked out on this season but I’m very curious to see the dynamic at play. It doesn’t seem like the team has quit, and they do have a chance to spoil State’s season. Having said that, I’m expecting a pretty big State contingent to make the trip up, and I’m less sure how many OM fans will be there given that baseball will be going on Saturday. I can see that as both a pro and a con.

 

I like State to win, but State doesn’t really blow anybody out, so I’ll be surprised if it isn’t a close game. And OM could win if State doesn’t play well.