Revisiting the 2012 Mississippi State Basketball Game Against Georgia

Feb 2, 2016; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs dance spirit squad member entertains the crowd during the first half against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Humphrey Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports /

The Mississippi State basketball team entered their game with the Georgia Bulldogs on February 11, 2012 as heavy favorites, but left Humphrey Coliseum with a loss that started one of the worst stretches in the history of the program.

The Mississippi State basketball team will take on the Georgia Bulldogs tonight at 7:00 in the Humphrey Coliseum. It’s a winnable game for the Bulldogs in Maroon and White, but there was a winnable game against Georgia just over four years ago today that ushered in the era of Mississippi State basketball Bulldog fans are currently suffering through.

The Mississippi State basketball team had gotten off to a great start in the 2011-2012 season. The Bulldogs surprised a lot of people around the country earlier in the season by winning the 2K Coaches Classic in Madison Square Garden. The team got off to a little bit of a bumpy start in SEC play, but when the game against Georgia rolled around, the Mississippi State basketball team had rebounded to a 6-3 mark in league play and 19-5 record overall and ranked 18th in the country..

My wife had surprised me about a week before this game was to take place by getting tickets for the two of us to attend this game as an early birthday present. I was really excited because it meant a trip back to Starkville and I was pretty confident the Bulldogs would win. Georgia was 11-12 and 2-7 before this game started, so there wasn’t any reason to believe Mississippi State would lose. Great things all around.

Well, things didn’t go quite as I had hoped they would. The Mississippi State basketball team had just come off of an emotional game on Thursday night against the Ole Miss Rebels. Ole Miss had beaten the Bulldogs in Oxford earlier in the year, and Rick Stansbury and his team wanted to make sure they didn’t let the Rebels come into the Hump and get a win. Sure enough, the Bulldogs put everything they had into winning against the Rebels and sent Ole Miss back to Oxford with a 70-60 loss on their hands.

When the game started against Georgia, you could tell the Mississippi State basketball team was lethargic. They weren’t playing with the same energy or urgency the Bulldogs had shown in previous games leading up to this one. You could see it in the warmups, but it wasn’t anything I felt too worried about at the beginning. I assumed the Bulldogs would get their act together and eventually put the Georgia version of the Bulldogs away.

The largest Mississippi State led by was seven points about halfway through the first half. But Georgia just wouldn’t go away. The Mississippi State basketball team led by three at the half, but Georgia clamped down on defense and got hot from three point range and ended up tying the game to send it to overtime.

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I’ll never forget one of the most crucial points in the game. Renardo Sidney was fouled with about a minute and a half to play in the game and Mississippi State led 58-57. Whoever it was that fouled committed their fifth foul, and the student section began their traditional “Left, Right, Sit Down!” taunt. If you don’t know what I am talking about, whenever a player fouls out for the opposing team, our student section (and many others across the country) start chanting “Left” when the player who fouled out steps with his left foot, “right” when they take a step with their right foot, and yell “Sit Down!’ when he actually takes his seat on the bench.

Renardo Sidney made the first of two free throws to make it 59-57, but I noticed the Georgia player was taking a while to get back to the bench. He also didn’t sit right when he got back to the bench. I thought he was going to end up sitting right as Sidney was going to take his second free throw. I was concerned that once he did, the students would holler sit down after having been quiet for a few seconds and startle Sidney when he was taking his free throw.

Sure enough, right as Renardo Sidney took his free throw, the Georgia player sat, the student section yelled sit down, and Sidney bricked the shot badly. It appeared Sidney was startled by the yell, and I checked Twitter to see if any of the beat writers thought the same thing, and most of them commented on it.

Georgia would get the rebound, come down the court, and tie the game on a layup. Jalen Steele took a contested three to win the game that clanked off the rim. Georgia then took the lead for good in overtime 66-64 and ultimately won 70-68.

Most Mississippi State basketball fans left the game obviously disappointed, but we all thought it was just a blip on the radar. I remember telling someone I thought 10-6 was still easily attainable, and if we could have a good run in the SEC tournament, a five or six seed wasn’t out of the question.

What happened is Mississippi State lost the next five games, and they went from a tournament lock to the wrong side of the Bubble. The Mississippi State basketball team needed a win over these same Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Tournament to keep any NCAA dreams alive. Once again, Georgia got the best of the Bulldogs in an ugly performance. Rick Stansbury would “retire” and the basketball team has been trying to recover ever since.

More bulldogs: What is Left for Mississippi State Basketball in 2016?

It was this time four years ago the Mississippi State basketball team began a downward spiral that it has yet to recover from against these same Georgia Bulldogs. But the Bulldogs are coming off one of their best performance since the early stages of the 2012 season with a 78-46 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Bulldogs haven’t won two SEC games in a row since they beat LSU and Tennessee in consecutive games last season. If the Mississippi State basketball team can win today, it might be the sign we’ve been looking for that brighter days are ahead.

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