After their loss to Alabama, it was critical that Mississippi State basketball didn't allow the heartbreak of that defeat to carry into Saturday's matchup with #20 Missouri. But that's exactly what they did.
The Bulldogs were run out of their own gym in an 88-61 blowout by the Tigers. They came out sluggish, allowed Mizzou to take control going into the break, and then watched their opponent run away from them in the second half in front of their own fans.
Now having lost five of their last seven, MSU is 16-6 overall, 4-5 in the SEC.
Once again, Mississippi State basketball could not defend the three
State has been awful at defending the three all season, and Mizzou is a good three-point shooting team. Naturally, the Tigers took full advantage, making 15-32 from distance. Caleb Grill was sensational with 20 points and six made threes. Some of those you have to just tip your cap, but as a whole, Mizzou got good looks and made State pay. This team cannot continue to defend the three as poorly as they have been.
The majority of the Bulldog lineup was a non factor offensively against Missouri
Josh Hubbard built off his last performance by going for 24 points and making 6-11 threes. He did what he needed to, though Missouri didn't let him get many open looks in the second half. KeShawn Murphy's final line of 16 and nine looks respectable, but much of his production came with State down big.
Beyond those two, State got nothing. Players not named Josh Hubbard shot 2-15 from three. Riley Kugel, Claudell Harris, Michael Nwoko, RJ Melendez, and Shawn Jones were a combined 4-28 from the floor! That is bafflingly horrific offense from the bulk of the lineup.
It's more than fair to begin questioning this Mississippi State basketball team
At this point if you want to be highly concerned with Bulldog basketball, you have every right to. None of their SEC losses have come to bad teams, and even the occasional blowout loss is going to happen in this league.
But they have not played a complete game in weeks, have at a minimum played poorly on one end of the court, and now have multiple games where they've been entirely awful. They're still a long ways away from being in any danger of missing the tournament, but they simply aren't playing like a good team right now. And that's not the expectation for this team.