Talk about a STATEment win. Mississippi State basketball blew the doors off #18 Pittsburgh at the Hump 90-57 in front of a rowdy crowd. The Bulldogs put together their best game of the year and helped the SEC notch a dominant 14-2 win in the SEC-ACC Challenge. State is now 7-1 on the year.
State's bigs can be a strength
Post play was a huge question mark entering the year. KeShawn Murphy had already begun to provide an answer, and he only made it clearer what he's capable of, posting a career high 20 points on 8-10 shooting. But then Michael Nwoko also showed he's not to be taken lightly, going for 18 and 11. And of course we know what Cam Matthews can do. He went for nine points, 13 boards, and four assists. State won rebounding 49-27, won second chance points 24-12, had six blocks, and put up an absurd 52 points in the paint. This team may be more guard oriented, but they are more than good enough to dominate down low.
The Bulldog defense played its best game of the year
After an ugly defensive game against Butler, you needed to see State get back to Chris Jans' brand of basketball. That's what they did. This is a Pitt team that entered the game averaging over 85 PPG, and State shut them down. The Panthers shot just 31%. State didn't force a wild number of steals or turnovers (though they fully capitalized on the ones they did). They simply suffocated them and didn't allow many good looks. It was a great reminder of what a Jans team is capable of on that end of the floor. And it definitely helps when you've got a student section like there was in the Hump Wednesday night.
Chris Jans has a team capable of more than simply being competitive
Entering the year, State fans had expectations of this being the best Bulldog basketball team in a long time. But there's been hype around other squads before who didn't come close to living up to it. And nationally, State was seen as nothing more than what they've been the last two seasons; good enough to make the tournament, but not good enough to be a high seed or actually make noise.
We can now start to feel confident that this team is capable of making real noise in college basketball this season. State is now #12 in KenPom and #10 in the NET. Pitt is a very good team, and they dismantled them. They own solid wins over Utah and SMU were they only played well for half the game. And the loss to Butler, while an ugly performance, came to a respectable team on what was obviously an off night.
When they are on their game, they look like one of the best teams in college basketball. The Bulldogs can absolutely compete at a high level within the best conference in the country, and they're going to.