Bulldog fans had high hopes for Mississippi State basketball entering this season, but reality has quickly set in that those hopes look likely to be crushed. The Bulldogs dropped to 2-2 after a blowout, 98-77 loss to Kansas State in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City Thursday night. They'll face New Mexico in the Classic's third-place game Friday evening.
The Mississippi State defense is full-on bad
The offseason goal for State was to get back to playing the brand of defense expected from a Chris Jans team. After four games, that venture has failed miserably. The Bulldogs were torched by Kansas State, thanks in large part to a 37-point performance from PJ Haggerty. The Wildcats shot 51% from the floor and 47% from three with 14 makes. They attacked the paint with ease for 42 points.
State again looked out of position for countless defensive possessions, leaving wide open perimeter shots and contesting nothing at the rim. They have no post presence defensively and cannot pass anything off. Perhaps there's growth on this end of the floor as this unit gels together, but right now, they're horrendous.
The Bulldogs don't have the offense to overcome that defense
To some extent, you could see a glimpse of the offensive vision for this Bulldog team when the roster was assembled in this game. Jayden Epps played his complementary role to Josh Hubbard well, scoring 18 on 6-11 shooting (4-7 from three) to go along with Hubbard's leading 23 points. And Quincy Ballard scored an efficient 10 points down low.
If the expected defense was there to go along with that, that might be enough, and that was likely the idea going into the year. But with the defense being so bad, getting nothing offensively beyond those three simply doesn't cut it. As a team, State shot 43% and 28% from three. And with 14 turnovers and only eight second-chance points, that inefficiency on the offensive end cannot work. This team was recruited for a specific style, and they can't play it.
Reset your expectations for Mississippi State basketball
We're only four games in, and plenty can still change. But for the time being, we need to significantly readjust our expectations for this Bulldog basketball team. Forget hoping for a team that can make noise in the SEC and make a run in March. This team would need a major turnaround from their current level of play to even make the NIT, much less the NCAA Tournament.
They've been dominated by the two power conference opponents they've faced and looked suspect against two mid-majors. It's not as though they show the bones of a quality squad and simply need to clean a few things up to get right. Josh Hubbard is the only consistently good piece, as no one else has had more than one solid showing mixed amongst poor outings. The offense is below-average, and the defense is ugly. It's not an overreaction to say nothing looks promising for this team. Maybe they figure it out, but their outlook has changed drastically to start the year in a bad way.