College Basketball

[Dawg83]

Will be surprised if both State and Ole Miss don’t win tomorrow. Arkansas stinks, Mizzou really stinks.

[sportsmaniac10]

On 2/16/2024 at 1:07 PM, Bulldogs4 said:

Two crucial games for State & Ole Miss. Neither Arky nor Mizzou are very good but both teams have to take care of business tomorrow. 

 

And there are back to back Egg Basketball Games Sunday & Wednesday.

 

The State women are coming off a disastrous 20 point loss to a very average Florida team that we beat by double digits on the road earlier in the season. The same Florida that Ole Miss just beat on the road in Overtime last night. 

So who knows what is going to happen? The game is in Oxford but probably 50% of the crowd will be for State so that might negate some of the home court advantage for Ole Miss. 

I guess it depends on which of the teams shows up with their good team for this particular game.

We will see. 

Ole Miss women did pick up a critical win on Thursday in Gainesville but good grief I have never seen such a miserable game of basketball. Again the turnovers are just out of control. Ole Miss finished with 26 turnovers (7 assists) . That is just mind boggling to me that a college team can do that poorly of a job taking care of the basketball. At one point during the 3rd quarter there was a period where Ole Miss turned the ball over 7 times in a 3 minute span....7 TIMES! The one thing I will commend them on is they continue to make free throws which has won them many games and was the difference in this game. 

Ole Miss finished 0-7 from the 3pt line. Just cannot find anyone can be a consistent threat from distance and this has been the trend throughout Coach Yo's tenure as coach. There are going to be a lot of needs in the offseason but this should definitely be up there at the top of the list. 

 

The craziest stat line I saw from the game though was that Ole Miss outrebounded Florida 55-27 and still needed a 4th quarter comeback to tie and the game and send it to overtime for the win. 

 

Ultimately you won on the road and thats important but its hard to imagine this team having any sort of post season success with how bad we look right now. Ive accepted that Ole Miss was extremely overhyped in the preseason and is a mediocre to average women's basketball team at best currently and thats pretty disappointing considering the players that returned and transferred in. 

 

Someone mentioned maybe Oxford isnt a women's basketball town.....I'd say thats B.S. Oxford absolutely could be a women's basketball town but that requires success and an on court product thats fun to watch. We arent fun to watch (this year) and we havent won anything or beaten any team of significance except Stanford last year in the NCAAs. Ole Miss has historically been the much more successful D1 women's program in the state. Starkville was not a women's basketball town prior to Vic Schaefer. But he turned Starkville into a women's basketball town. Even with the success he brought, Ole Miss still has more elite 8 and sweet 16 appearances than State by quite a decent margin. All that just to say I do believe Oxford and Starkville can be women's basketball towns with the right coach and some on court success. These are women's SEC sports programs so we are in the top tier of programs in the country in terms of resources. Coach Yo's base salary is ranked 20th among active women's college basketball coaches and I dont doubt they'd increase that if she won an SEC title or made a final 4 run. Purcell's is not quite that high but reasonable given the coaching musical chairs with State's program the past few years. I appreciate what Yo's done in turning the program around but I think this year and next year will tell us if she has reached her ceiling in terms of what she can do for us. And if she cant take another step forward then you need to be looking because there are plenty of good coaches that would jump to coach at an SEC school.  

 

State comes to Oxford on Sunday following what was probably their worst game of the season in a 20 point loss to Florida. Both teams are 7-4 in SEC play. Both teams should be favored to win their final 4 conference games following this one. So at worst one team should be 12-4 and one team 11-5. LSU has an easy enough schedule remaining that they probably finish 13-3 and take 2nd in the SEC. Tennessee is currently in 3rd at 8-3 but still has another game at South Carolina and LSU which means they will probably finish 11-5 at best. So theres hope that we get a 3rd and 4th place finish from the Lady Rebs and Dawgs and see if either can bump up their seeding and get out of the 8/9 and away from #1 seed in the second round of the NCAAs. We'll see what plays out on the court though. 

[Bulldogs4]

State playing a very fugly (but seemingly the norm with this team) game and we are tied 48-48 midway through the second half.

Ugggggghhhhh. 

 

[Bulldogs4]

I don’t think State’s players even practice Free Throws. Just ugggghhhh. 

[Dawg83]

Whew State just escaped a near disaster. Did not play well at all and struggled with foul trouble in both halves. At least it was a W in the end. A loss would’ve been devastating to your tourney hopes.

[Bulldogs4]

Well State handed the game to Arkansas on a silver platter but Arkansas said “na” we don’t want it. 

[Dawg83]

1 minute ago, Bulldogs4 said:

Well State handed the game to Arkansas on a silver platter but Arkansas said “na” we don’t want it. 

If State plays that way on Wednesday night, Ole Miss probably wins. Gotta pick it up for sure. Not a great showing, will probably hurt their metrics a little in spite of the win.

[Bulldogs4]

We won, which I am always glad for. Even though teams claim they don’t do it, I am sure that our players looked at Arkansas and thought this was going to be easy. But there are no easy games in the conference. 
 Obviously we will be ready to play Wednesday against Ole Miss and hopefully we will play much cleaner game. 
Free Throws are just killer when you are 19-32. We turned what should have been a comfortable win to an almost loss. 

[Dawg83]

And to be fair Arkansas is talented, just have had a dysfunctional year. But they were a preseason Top 15 team for a reason. Not your typical bad team in that they actually have some good players and a good coach.

[Dawg83]

After 12 games State is exactly .500 in SEC play. Play .500 ball in the next six games and you’re definitely going to the NCAA tourney.

[Bulldogs4]

Arkansas is very talented and they played hard today. I was concerned that it was going to be a struggle today and it was. 
 

Big game tomorrow in Oxford for the women. We need to win but obviously it is going to be difficult. 

[Dawg83]

LSU winning at South Carolina on the men’s side was not something I saw coming. Sneaky tough game for State in Baton Rouge next Saturday. But I also think maybe SC was playing a little over their heads for a while and is starting to come down to earth some.

[Bulldogs4]

Agree with you there. I said after SC eeked out that win against Ole Miss that they seem to be trending down. 
LSU is much improved and that is going to be a tough game for State next Saturday down there. 

[Bulldogs4]

We do play LSU after they play KY Wednesday at home. Hopefully that is an advantage for us as teams often have a let down the game after playing the Cats. We will see. 

[Dawg83]

Kentucky just won handily at Auburn. Gee Ole Miss thanks for waking up the beast….

[Dawg83]

Um Ole Miss? Whatcha doing over there, exactly?

[Dawg83]

lol never mind. Mizzou was up 9 or 10 in the second half when I posted that and OM abruptly went on like a 21-2 run.

[Bulldogs4]

As the old saying goes “just win” and that is what State & Ole Miss did today. Can’t help but think that both teams had one eye on Wednesday night. Almost costly for both but both teams persevered. 
 

Now sets up a huge game Wednesday. 
 

[Dawg83]

I am sticking with my guns in that I have pretty much always expected a season split this year, so I still have State winning at home on Wednesday. Could OM go in and get a W? Sure they could.

 

I think State needs this one slightly more than OM just because State’s closing stretch of games is pretty tough and this is one of the more winnable games remaining. Either way, the winner of this game will have a lot more breathing room than the loser afterward.

[Insideradvantage]

2 hours ago, Dawg83 said:

Kentucky just won handily at Auburn. Gee Ole Miss thanks for waking up the beast….

When OM played Kentucky, it was the first game all year Kentucky was at full strength due to injury. I assume that was also the case tonight. 

[Dawg83]

The way it looks, the SEC has six teams that are basically locks for the tourney (Bama, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, SC, Florida) and then you have State, A&M, and Ole Miss all trying to stay off the bubble.

 

And conveniently guess which games are still to be played?

 

Ole Miss at State

State at A&M

A&M at Ole Miss

 

Those three games may determine a lot about who makes the tourney.

[MSTSatchmo]

As tough as State’s schedule was at the start of conference play, the last 6 games are pretty tough also.  
The rivalry game with OM, which I still say isn’t a good matchup for State, Kentucky, Auburn and S Carolina.  At least 3 of the 4 are at home.  
The two “most winnable” games are on the road though.  Plus LSU was considered the easiest and they just upset SC on the road. 
 

3-3 in the last six would be an accomplishment.  
 

OM and A&M both only have 2 ranked teams left.  

[Dawg83]

The thing you fear about Ole Miss is the shot making ability. They made 12 threes in the first meeting in Oxford. The hope is it’s harder for them to make shots on the road. I don’t think OM is particularly good on defense so State should be able to have a solid game offensively. Key there is just not turning it over a billion times like they did in Oxford. Even with all that, it came down to the final possession the first go-round. I could see OM winning again but I could also see State winning somewhat comfortably.

Still think there’s a chance State could make the tourney with an 8-10 SEC record (they did last year) but obviously 9-9 would have you a lot more confident about it.

 

If you made me call it today I think State beats Ole Miss and South Carolina in the Hump and steals a road win at either LSU or A&M,

 

I have no expectation of State to win at Auburn and even in the Hump I think Kentucky is a terrible matchup for State and they’re starting to click as well.

[Bulldogs4]

Ole Miss was 11-21 from three against Missouri but only won the game by three. On surface, if shoot the ball that well from outside it should have been a blow out especially against a winless conference opponent. Looking at the stats, turnovers were a culprit for Ole Miss against Missouri. 
 

So 83 you are correct in that Ole Miss can make shots. The keys for State is to take care of the ball, finish shots on the inside, MAKE FREE THROWS and just play solid defense knowing that Ole Miss is going to make some shots. 
 

Should be a great atmosphere and has the makings of a great game. 
 

[Dawg83]

However the next month goes, this season has been more fun as a whole than any in a while. I know you had the one year in 2019 where Howland and Kermit both had good teams but I don’t think there was true buy in from either fanbase. This year both sides are pretty good AND both sides seem to care a bit more this time around.