Mississippi State basketball has an Alabama problem. The Bulldogs entered Tuesday night's matchup with Alabama having lost seven-straight to the Crimson Tide. Their last win in Tuscaloosa came all the way back in 2016.
They did nothing to reverse that trend in the latest installment of the series. #24 State was beaten to a pulp by the #6 Tide, losing 111-73, their worst loss under Chris Jans and the most points allowed by the program since 1993. It was so bad that Jon Rothstein put out his "Rothstein-ism" for the Tide at halftime.
AT HALFTIME 😭
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) February 26, 2025
To be a ranked team that's safely NCAA Tournament-bound, likely as a single-digit seed, State looked like a bad mid-major program against the potential 1-seed Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs are now 19-9, 7-8 in the SEC.
Mississippi State's three-point defense had an almost unthinkably bad night, even by their standards
All season long we've talked about how poorly State has been at defending the three ball, so much so that even discussing it is as a part of any given performance is practically pointless. But truly it is remarkable how atrocious they were against Alabama.
The Crimson Tide made 22 (TWENTY-TWO) three pointers against State, hitting 48.9% of their attempts. Even for a team that shoots a ton from distance, that was their most makes from three in a game since 2021. It was the most threes the Bulldogs have allowed this season and the most they've allowed in a game in...well so long back I couldn't officially find since when (couldn't find the program record either).
It's stunning to see how sharp the decline of this defense has been.
The Bulldogs were almost totally ineffective on the offensive side of the ball
It was a bad offensive night too for State. They shot just 38.4% from the floor and 20% from three. Josh Hubbard put up 21, but it wasn't at all a good shooting night for him. Riley Kugel and Claudell Harris had awful nights. RJ Melendez had his moments but was 1-6 from three.
Only KeShawn Murphy had an effective game with 18 on 8-11 shooting and 11 rebounds, but it's not like that made a difference. State turned it over 14 times, leading to 20 Bama points. Despite all the offseason hype for this team's potential offensively, they remain mediocre at best on that side of the ball most nights.
This was an all-around horrific performance, which is the last thing you want to see at this point in the year. This was the type of game that's going to, justifiably, leave MSU fans completely skeptical of of this team's potential come March.