TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-The crowd noise came to an abrupt stop. All the screaming ceased, except for the small contingent behind the visiting bench. Even the cheerleaders and dance members didn’t quite know what to do.
The sweet, swishing sound of Jamall Edmondson’s three-pointer silenced the 13,529 in Coleman Coliseum, the Crimson Tide’s renovated home.
The long-distance shot gave Mississippi State its first lead with 7:12 left in a game that Alabama led by 10 at the half and by as many as 15. As I sat on press row, I tried to control my own emotions after seeing Edmondson’s three grab nothing but net. The expressions on the ‘Bama fans were priceless as they sat in their red-and-white apparel screaming at the referees.
I thought at that point things were changing for Mississippi State. The offense looked as good as it had over the last two hectic weeks, and the defense was forcing turnovers left and right. It was an awakening sight. A game that looked out of reach early (State trailed 23-9 just 12 minutes in) was beginning to look like a much-needed win, a win that would have broken a horrible five-game skid.
But, as you well know, the Bulldogs didn’t break that five-game skid. They just extended it. State got into foul trouble, and the Tide made six of 10 free throws in the final minutes. UA forward Jean Felix hit a three-pointer from the corner with 5:12 left to give ‘Bama a 55-50 lead. They finally won 65-59.
“We don’t want to lose,” Edmondson said shortly after the final buzzer sounded. “But we kind of feel positive coming out of this game. We know we are learning from our mistakes now.”
The Bulldogs must first look at the way they started the game as the reason for the loss. Five minutes before the first half finished, State had only made four of 19 attempts from the field, including a one of eight mark from three-point range. They had only 11 points in the first 15 minutes of the game. Now that’s an unproductive half court offense.
“They made it hard to hit the low post to Charles (Rhodes),” Edmondson said about UA’s 2-3 zone defense in the first half.
Jamont Gordon, who led State with 18 points, said the following about the poor offense in the opening 15 minutes: “We were doing it to ourselves really, just standing on the perimeter and swaying that ball side to side. We didn’t make that defense work.”
Alabama’s Jermareo Davidson commented on the Bulldogs’ mis communication on offense early in the game: “I heard them getting frustrated … yelling for the ball.”
Finally, the offense caught fire. State scored on five of its first six possessions of the second half to close a 10-point deficit to nothing. But in the end, it just wasn’t enough. The Tide, bigger inside and faster on the perimeter, shot 40 free throws, making 25. MSU shot 13 and made five. And still ignorant Tide fans were booing and hissing at the officials.
“There were some bad calls out there,” Gordon said of the officials. “Referees … man … I don’t know.”
After the game in all my misery and slight depression, I began to reminisce of the past four years of Bulldogs basketball. Those years losses came only every once in a while. Not six at a time.
?Four NCAA Tournament appearances
?Four 20-win season
?Two SEC West Championships
?One overall SEC Championship
?Three top five seeds in the Big Dance.
This season there will probably not be any 20 wins. There will certainly not be an NCAA Tournament bid, and the SEC Championship is nearly already out of reach. It’s been a rocky road the past two weeks. After an SEC opening win over Arkansas, State has dropped the last six games, two at The Hump.
Heading into Wednesday night’s game with Kentucky the Bulldogs stand dead last in the SEC West with a 1-6 conference record after the loss to Alabama.
So, what’s wrong with this team? It’s a question I get from students nearly every day. There is no one answer, no simple solution. The problems with this team, in my opinion, are as follows:
Experimenting with
no experience
State entered this season with only three players that had any starting experience from last season, and those players-Jamall Edmondson, Piotr Stelmach and Wesley Morgan-had a combined total of seven starts. The Bulldogs lost six of the top scorers and six of the top rebounders from last season.
So, we all knew it was going to be a rebuilding year, but I don’t think anyone saw six straight losses coming. State starts, on average, two true freshman-Jamont Gordon and Reginald Delk. They pull two more true freshman-Richard Delk and Vernon Goodridge-from the bench.
So at times, the Bulldogs have four true freshmen on the floor, an outstanding number compared to last year when seniors encompassed the hardwood for State. Only one senior-Jamall Edmondson-has received more than minimal time playing this season.
For example, Edmondson played 34 minutes against Alabama. The only other senior that played was Wesley Morgan with nine minutes. Morgan never took a shot, and he missed two free throws and grabbed one rebound.
Wanted: Point Guard
Plain and simple. Mississippi State doesn’t have a point guard, a quick, smart, good ball handler, who looks for the open man or drives inside himself. With the loss of Gary Ervin, State was left without anyone at the No. 1 stop, a key role in any offense.
Stansbury has tried many different lineups with different point guards. Edmondson, though a decent shooter, is just not a true point guard. Edmondson is more of a shooting guard (No. 2 spot). Gordon was moved to the No. 1 spot on occasion. Though he is a great ball-handler and another decent shot taker, he’s careless with the ball, and he is needed at forward.
Dietric Slater got his turn at the point position, but his spastic ways soon ended that.
Finally, versus Alabama, Stansbury tried the Delk twins as guards. But they still are young, careless, and they don’t penetrate the lane enough, nor do they recognize the open man, if there ever is an open man.
With no real leader at the point, it’s difficult to run any kind of half court offense. That’s why sometimes you see the Bulldogs just passing the ball around the perimeter and draining the shot clock.
It’s very hard to run an offense with lack of a true point guard. In the future, I’m sure one of the Delk twins will step into the role, but for now it remains vacant.
Benchless
The Bulldogs are desperately lacking play from their bench players. With the dismissals of Walter Sharpe and Jerrell Houston, the MSU bench is all but depleted. Stansbury normally uses only two or three players from the bench.
If he is going with a small lineup, which he has the last couple games, he pulls Wesley Morgan, Richard Delk and Vernon Goodridge off the bench. Those players average 10 points a game combined.
Against ‘Bama the Bulldogs actually pulled four players off their bench, mostly due to foul trouble. Richard Delk’s three points were the only scored by the bench players. Six points were all that were scored by bench players in State’s loss to then No. 21 Tennessee. The Bulldogs have been outscored by opponent bench players 108-59 over their last six games.