Mississippi State basketball: Bulldogs risk losing fan support after Ole Miss loss

Unfortunately, after another loss to the Ole Miss Rebels, it looks likely that many Mississippi State basketball fans are likely to draw back on how much they’ll support the men’s team.

Prior to the game today, Ben Howland and the Mississippi State basketball team have been doing everything they possibly could that was within their control to get fans back in Humphrey Coliseum to support the Bulldogs. But with what happened today, after an infuriating loss to the Ole Miss Rebels, MSU will unfortunately have a hard time winning fan support back.

It should be clear that Ben Howland and this current team of Bulldogs aren’t to blame for the fact that fans aren’t showing up at games. This team did nothing to cause to the issue at hand with the state of the program being where it is.

Still unfortunately, the players on the roster currently will have to deal with consequences caused by the program falling apart long before they were even on campus.

And, it’s sad to say that losing this afternoon to Ole Miss will likely work against Howland’s efforts to get the Hump back to being one of the most imposing atmospheres in the country. But that’s likely what is going to actually happen.

These attendance issues started long before this team was put together.

But, this team (and to be a bit more precise, its coach) is responsible for what happens right now and for rebuilding the program. As was mentioned earlier, prior to the game today, Howland and the Bulldogs did everything possible to get fans engaged and back in the Hump.

The NIT run last year and the strong start to this season helped get fans energized about what the future of this Mississippi State basketball program might look like. More important right in this moment is that fans were excited about what this particular team would be.

But losing to Ole Miss in front of over 10,000 Mississippi State basketball fans in what was a very winnable game, unsurprisingly, isn’t going to do this team any favors in terms of getting fans to continue to buy into this program.

Oh, and there is the fact that MSU is now 0-2 in SEC play. That won’t help things either.

There’s still plenty of season left.

Ben Howland and his team will have plenty of season ahead of them to correct what’s going wrong. And, in all honesty, there’s a lot going wrong at the moment. The Bulldogs lost on the road to South Carolina in a game that they should have won and now they’ve lost back at home in Starkville to Ole Miss in a game that they should have won.

Mississippi State is 0-2 in SEC play and that’s embarrassing to talk about right now.

This team is talented. This team has everything it needs in terms of talent, experience, depth, perimeter shooters, and big men in the paint to make a run down the stretch of this season. A win up in Oxford later this season would help MSU fans forget about a four-point loss in Starkville. Finding a way to win the SEC tournament would help MSU fans reconcile preseason expectations and the actual outcomes and results.

But the Bulldogs will need to find a way to get this season going back in the right direction. The Mississippi State basketball team has all the talent that it needs to win. Now, the Bulldogs just need to actually win.