Wikipedia was probably not the only thing blacked out on Wednesday night. After finally defeating their hated overlords, the Mississippi State Bulldogs, in a game of basketball, hundreds of bowtie-clad residents of Georgia and Texas probably descended upon the Square in Oxford for a night filled with Hotty Toddy chants and excited debates concerning whether their beloved Rebels would earn a two or three seed in this year’s NIT. Blackouts were sure to occur.
In Starkville, the weeping and gnashing of teeth would continue long into the night after the Bulldogs lost yet another SEC road game to a supposedly inferior opponent. Lost amidst the juvenile smack talk that flowed from both sides after the game and threatened to make Twitter unbearable was the fact State once again lost a game it could not afford to lose against a team it generally does not lose to. For State fans, this has sadly become the norm.
Inconsistency is the hallmark of the MSU basketball program, and it is losses like the Bulldog’s 75-68 setback to Ole Miss within the mordor-like confines of Tad Smith Coliseum that seem to keep MSU fans in a perpetual state of agitation. The Bulldogs have the talent to earn a relatively high seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, as in years past, bad losses may prevent this from happening.
Whether it is Rider, Akron, Florida Atlantic, LSU, Auburn or now Ole Miss, it seems as if MSU manages to lose several games every year that do serious damage to the Bulldogs’ seeding in the NCAA Tournament. For a fanbase that seems to desperately crave a Sweet 16 birth in order to ward off the malaise that seems to have settled over the program in the last few years under MSU head basketball coach Rick Stansbury’s guidance, losses like the one to the Rebels are damaging on several fronts.
For starters, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Bulldogs projected as the seventh seed in the West Regional of the NCAA Tournament entering Wednesday’s game against the Rebels. As any avid college hoops fan knows, it is not a seed teams want to be awarded. State’s 2007-2008 squad learned this lesson firsthand as it went 12-4 in conference play but was awarded an eight seed due to a poor showing in non-conference play. As a result of being an eight seed, a very good MSU team was forced to play the eventual national runners up, Memphis, in the second round. The 2008-2009 squad also had bad losses, this time in conference play, and squeaked into the NCAA Tournament as a 13 seed after winning the SEC Tournament. The 2009-2010 team was denied the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament primarily due to losses to Rider and Auburn. In every aforementioned instance, MSU either missed the NCAA Tournament or did not survive past the first weekend.
Not only do such losses harm a team’s RPI (there is a good chance both Arkansas and Ole Miss finish outside of the top 100 in RPI), but they aggravate the fans. Over the last few years there has been a lot of criticism directed at Stansbury by MSU fans and members of the national media for what is perceived to be his team’s habit of underachieving every year. Well, such talk will not be going away. In an improved SEC featuring teams such as Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, it is imperative to beat the league’s weaker teams on the road when you have a chance to do so. MSU has had two such chances so far, and the Bulldogs have crashed and burned both times.
There is a lot of basketball left to be played, but this may prove to be a loss that comes back to haunt the Bulldogs in March. With road games against Vanderbilt and Florida coming up, MSU is in the unenviable position of having to beat at least one of them on the road in order to keep from falling in a huge hole early in SEC play.
It is mystifying losses such as the one Wednesday that make it difficult to become emotionally invested in MSU basketball and keep many fans wondering if the “Hump” will ever regain the raucous atmosphere that used to make it such a feared venue. After all, even the most diehard fans can only take so much disappointment.