College Basketball

[MSTSatchmo]

2 hours ago, Dawg83 said:

Midweek NET update, State is now 35, Ole Miss is 57.

 

If OM can get by USM on Saturday, I think they’ll go into SEC play undefeated but probably lose pretty quickly, as the first conference game is at Tennessee. Yeesh. But they do have several winnable SEC games immediately following that.

 

State has the big game against Rutgers on Saturday, then Bethune Cookman, then an absolute gauntlet to start SEC play. 8 of the first 9 SEC games are against Top 60 NET teams.

State had a heck of a tough schedule to start SEC play last year.  

[Dawg83]

37 minutes ago, MSTSatchmo said:

State had a heck of a tough schedule to start SEC play last year.  

That one was more top heavy, this one has more depth. State could’ve saved themselves a lot of trouble early last year if they don’t lose to Florida at home and to a bad Georgia team.

 

Other than Vandy at home about 5 games in, the easiest game in January is…. maybe Auburn at home? Or road trips to Florida or Ole Miss? It’s a brutal January. That said, February isn’t that bad all things considered.

 

State having a front loaded schedule isn’t new for whatever reason. You mentioned last year but I also feel like it happened several times in the Howland schedule.

[Bulldogs4]

Nice comeback win in the 4th quarter for the State women over a good Colorado State on the road. Down 8 at the start of quarter number 4 and then won by 7. 

Looks both State & Ole Miss have solid hoops on the women side and I was going to add USM in there but after beating OM recently they have promptly lost two straight to drop to 7-2 on the season. 
 

 

[sportsmaniac10]

State women has done well so far. Purcell did a good job recruiting. He got some decent transfers and he quietly racked up some good high school talent. Kinda shocked because player for player his team looks to be more talented than Ole Miss. The early loss to Miami was tough but Miami is top 20 now and was an elite 8 team last year so nothing wrong dropping that one. The loss to Chattanooga hurts but that was without a few players and Purcell who all went down with a virus. The one thing that worried me for them in early December was injuries. They already had one starter that went down for the season to injury and a few others that missed multiple games but fortunately haven’t really missed a beat. Look to be firmly on track to comfortably be a top 6 team in the SEC and maybe challenge Tennessee for that number 3 spot.

 

Being honest, Ole Miss women have been disappointing thus far. With their schedule, 9-2 was worst case scenario at this point with a realistic chance of being 11–0. Instead they are 8-3 and regardless of the rest of the games on the non conference slate, will go into sec play with a few ho hum wins over Michigan and Arizona who aren’t that strong this year and a bad loss to USM. Should be having dreams of hosting NCAA games this year but currently just trying to stay off the bubble.
 

much more was expected coming off the biggest program win in probably the last 2 decades or post Van Chancelor days and came in with a top 15 preseason ranking, returning everyone from last year but 1 starter and bringing in some big time players in the transfer portal and they’ve looked mediocre at best. The three year starter that was one of the top 4 rated players in the portal is out of the starting line up and coming off the bench. Hasn’t been able to find her shot. Lost their starting PG to acl tear. And overall just don’t look to be meshing well. They seem to be improving on defense but the offense is just awful at times. And then the loss to Southern Miss which no offense to Usm but that was embarrassing for Ole Miss. looking on paper at the talent discrepancy between the two teams….woof 

 

Coach Yo reminds me a bit of Kiffin. Spends a lot of time posting on social media. Some of it is good inspiration stuff and then a decent amount responding to trolls. Also posting alot asking fans to come and support which I think is great. But then your team has to perform after you get the people to come out. She’s yet to have one ranked opponent come to Oxford and have her team win. Oklahoma came in and manhandled them and then also lost to Louisville after going an abysmal 13-28 from the free throw line. Continue to lay eggs during big home games.

 

State and Ole Miss should both make the tourney but State is definitely the one trending in the right direction while Ole Miss doesn’t seem ready to take that next step and be a consistent top 4 SEC team.

[Dawg83]

I guess I’ll have to out myself as a fair weathered fan of women’s hoops. I was all in during the Vic Schaefer era. Tried to stick with it during the Nikki McCray-Penson (RIP) season but lost interest about midway through. Have not watched a minute of women’s basketball so far this season and only watched a handful of minutes the last couple of years combined.

 

Purcell seems like a really nice guy, but it’s almost too much sometimes. Lol. He comes off as more of a big church youth pastor than a basketball coach to me. But he seems to be doing a good job with things.

[Dawg83]

Big “neutral site” win for State against Rutgers in Newark. Total rock fight, felt a lot like many of last year’s games.

 

Bell and Matthews were both awesome. Rutgers didn’t have the size to handle them at all.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Dawg83

[Unionman76]

bell 17 points 18 rebounds

cam 18 points 11 rebounds

[Dawg83]

And should have Tolu back by the first SEC game. I’d say there’s a decent chance he plays against Bethune Cookman on NYE.

[Bulldogs4]

Really good win against a good Rutgers team in what was basically a home game for them. 

And as I mentioned before with Tolu and Bell that really gives Coach some inside beef. I doubt very many teams have two inside guys with their level of experience and talent. 

 

Would be good if he can play some minutes in this next game before we start conference play. 

[Dawg83]

Assuming State beats Bethune Cookman, I can’t complain too much about only having two losses in nonconference without Tolu. The Southern loss should’ve never ever hsppened, but I also thought they’d lose one of these neutral site games and they won all of them. I can forgive the GT loss, true road game and only a Q2 loss right now.

 

You take out one really bad week and they’ve looked pretty darn good. You just hope the team that lost those two games doesn’t show up again.

Edited December 23, 2023 by Dawg83

[MSTSatchmo]

2 hours ago, Unionman76 said:

bell 17 points 18 rebounds

cam 18 points 11 rebounds

That’s pretty impressive post play numbers without your top post player.  

[MSTSatchmo]

OM beat USM easily today.  Impressive numbers from three by two guys.  Murrell was 4-8 and Murray 5-6.  

[Dawg83]

2 hours ago, MSTSatchmo said:

OM beat USM easily today.  Impressive numbers from three by two guys.  Murrell was 4-8 and Murray 5-6.  

Gotta say, I know USM lost a good bit from last year but they’ve been disappointing so far after being an NIT team and conference champ last season.

[Dawg83]

Tolu Smith will make his return tomorrow against Bethune Cookman. Heck yeah.

 

Don’t want to look too far ahead given that State already lost to one SWAC team, but the start of SEC play next Saturday could be really interesting.

 

No. 24 Ole Miss at No. 6 Tennessee

11-2 State at 12-1 South Carolina

 

Plus you also have a Kentucky at Florida game which should be really good.

[rebmus]

Ole Miss moves to 13-0. 

As 83 said above, SEC play starts next weekend. We'll see who are contenders and who are pretenders over the next 4-5 weeks. 

 

[NoWammies]

Ole Miss surpasses their win total from last year. OAN Flanigan is an example of why I don’t listen to fanbases that lost a player. Auburn fans called him every name possible and said he wasn’t worth anything. All he’s done is average 16/7/3. I’ll take that production any day of the week. 

[Dawg83]

Tolu looked sharp in his return. Weak competition but still good to see.

[Dawg83]

Interestingly the only teams in the SEC with fewer than two losses going into conference play are Ole Miss and South Carolina, two of the worst teams from last year.

 

Now some of that is strength of schedule, like Alabama has 5 losses but the number 4 SOS. But still an interesting dynamic.

Also interesting to look at teams you’ve already played and see what they’ve done since. Remember that Detroit Mercy team that Ole Miss barely escaped by 1 point? They’re 0-15 now. Would’ve been a brutal loss for OM had they not salvaged it.

 

I also don’t feel like the Southern loss is hurting State quite as bad as it could be, and perhaps will be soon. Southern’s NET is 188 which is bad, but the rest of the SWAC is 250 or worse. So they’re not moving up unless they just blow through their entire league, which is probably unlikely.

 

State is 4-1 in Q2 games but currently doesn’t have a Q1 game played. That will change soon. Ole Miss’s win at UCF is hanging on as a Q1, but not by much. So both State and Ole Miss will have to rack up a fair amount of quality wins in SEC play. There will be lots of games that fall into that category because it’s a brutal league this year.

Edited January 2, 2024 by Dawg83

[NoWammies]

Switch it up to lady’s hoops real quick. Ole Miss got a big road win last night against Bama to start off the SEC play. Girls played a great game defensively and was also helped by some poor shooting from Bama holding them to their fewest points total of the season. Big test comes Sunday. I’ll be in The Pavilion rooting them on as they try and take down the defending champs. 

[Bulldogs4]

State women lost a crucial home game to Vandy but the Lady Dores are 14-1 so they may be better than they have been in recent years.

 

Going to SCAR Sunday so we will be 0-2 in the conference which is never a good way to start. 

[Bulldogs4]

Kind of ironic that both State teams are playing at SCAR this weekend. I know it is only one of eighteen games but this is a big game for the men. Starting the conference season with a road win would be important in a number of ways. The SEC is rugged and road wins are going to be difficult to come by. After the slow start last year (I think we were 1-7) we need strong beginning this year. This a very veteran team and if they are going to take a step to another level, these are the types of games that you need to win. 
 

So we will see. Certainly not the end of the world if we lose but a win would be nice.,

[Dawg83]

I will take 2-2 in the first four games for State and be pleased with it. My gut says their best chance to get two wins is tomorrow and hosting Bama in a week. I think Tennessee and Kentucky are the two best teams in the league this year.

 

I think the Ole Miss undefeated run likely ends in Knoxville tomorrow. But the three following games are all very winnable for OM.

[Dawg83]

State drops a game at South Carolina they probably had no business losing. SC is much improved and probably will be a bubble or NIT team. But State had a big size advantage and got totally embarrassed on the boards somehow. Had a nice lead early then started getting in foul trouble and never found their footing again. Even so, still had the ball down 2 with 10 seconds left and turned it over 40 feet from the basket.

 

It’s not a bad loss in terms of the metrics, SC was like 45 in the NET coming in. But now you’re staring down the barrel of Tennessee, Bama, and @ Kentucky in consecutive games. Good luck!

[Dawg83]

I hope you’re fond of the bubble, State fans. Because it looks like another year of that will they/won’t they saga.

[Bulldogs4]

Disappointing loss because they put toughed us today. Rebounding was atrocious and then Davis with a terrible turnover when we actually had a chance to tie or win the game. 
 

We are not there yet with the mental (not just physical ) toughness to win these types of games on the road. That was the hallmark of CRW and CRS teams in the 1990’s and in the 2000’s. 
 

I do think this team is capable there but today was a setback. As I said it is one game but it was a game we needed to win.