Mississippi State basketball reached the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight season, and for the third-straight season, the Bulldogs went one-and-done in the Big Dance. 8-seed Mississippi State fell 75-72 to 9-seed Baylor on Friday in Raleigh. Despite a big game from Josh Hubbard and Baylor not being able to take advantage of State's usually poor three-point defense, an overall lack of physicality resulted in another early exit for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State finishes the 2024-2025 season at 21-13.
Josh Hubbard did all he could for Mississippi State against Baylor
If Mississippi State wanted any sort of chance at some March Madness Magic, it was going to require Josh Hubbard to playing at a high-level. They obviously failed to capture that magic, but the Bulldogs' leader still gave his team all he could against Baylor.
Hubbard put up 26 points to lead all scorers on 11-17 shooting, including four made threes. In the first half, he was literally the only reason Mississippi State was in the game. And even in the second half as others began to contribute, if State didn't have Hubbard taking over, they'd have been blown out.
Of course the elephant in the room is that he didn't take the final shot for State down three, instead handing it off to Claudell Harris, who air-balled. Whether that was called by Chris Jans or a decision made by Hubbard, we don't know. Either way, it was an error. But that doesn't change the fact that Josh Hubbard rose to the occasion for State when no one else did.
Baylor outworked Mississippi State, and that's the biggest reason the Bulldogs are going home early
A big storyline entering the game was that, on paper, State had the edge physically over Baylor. The Bulldogs had significantly more size, especially in the post. Knowing that, you'd expect State to dominate the boards and find success attacking the paint.
That's not what happened. Baylor owned the glass, finishing +8 rebounding. That was especially true on the offensive end, where 15 offensive rebounds resulted in (at least) 22 second chance points for the Bears. Baylor routinely boxed out and chased down boards. They didn't shoot particularly well at just 43.5%. They simply out-worked the Bulldogs.
What's incredible is State seemed almost unwilling to be the more physical team. Even beyond the rebounding, MSU acted as if they had no intention of getting paint touches for the majority of the game. State's bigs combined for just 14 points, six of which came from free throws. They attempted just eight shots total.
That's a horrible approach even when you don't have a massive advantage size-wise. It was mind-numbing given that advantage. Now State's final shooting tally of 50%, including 10-29 from three, looks more than good enough (turning it over 14 times also proved costly), but that percentage could have been even higher if they went for the mismatch. Mississippi State could have and should have won this game, which makes the season ending an even tougher pill to swallow.