Why Mississippi State basketball’s loss to Alabama draws both concern and optimism

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STARKVILLE — Two things can be true of Mississippi State basketball at the same time.

The Bulldogs are a great team. The analytics say it, the rankings say it, the NCAA tournament résumé says it, and so do the bracketologists. They appear well on their way to a third consecutive NCAA tournament berth.

But are they an elite national title contender? That remains to be seen after No. 13 MSU (16-5, 4-4 SEC) lost an 88-84 nail-biter to No. 4 Alabama (18-3, 7-1) on Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

The loss leaves Mississippi State 0-4 against top-10 teams this season, but there also can be a view of optimism from the game.

Mississippi State isn’t winning versus top-10 teams

Mississippi State has played four teams that at the time were ranked in the top 10 of the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. All of them have been in conference play in a span of 18 days.

Two of them were on the road — a 22-point loss to Auburn and a 12-point loss to Tennessee. The other before Wednesday was at home, a 95-90 loss to Kentucky.

The Bulldogs do have impressive wins, though, against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Memphis, SMU, Pittsburgh, Utah and South Carolina. All of them are considered Quad 1 or Quad 2 games by the NCAA NET rankings.

“My deduction would be, at this point, we’re not a top 10 team,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. “We’ve lost four games of our five to top-10 teams. I don’t like saying that or admitting that because I like this team. I’m confident in this team. I believe in this group. It’s what I told them before the game, I told them during the game and what I told them after the game.”

MORE: Mississippi State football schedule 2025: Spring game date announced

Mississippi State was going swing-for-swing with Kentucky and Alabama in crunch time. Against the Wildcats, MSU trailed by one point with two minutes remaining but didn’t score for the rest of the game. And on Wednesday versus Alabama, KeShawn Murphy blew an open layup that would’ve given MSU a one-point lead with…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-mississippi-state-basketball-loss-111501198.html

Author : The Clarion Ledger

Publish date : 2025-01-30 11:15:00

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