Revisionist History: #15 Mississippi State 78, Vanderbilt 77 (OT) - Blown Leads, Overtime Losses, and Brad Tinsley

Only b/c of all the hype and the top 10 ranking. We probably deserve to still get in the top 25 come tomorrow but I doubt we do. It’s just so disappointing after they all came back, said they had something to prove, etc, etc.

I’m not really that down b/c State is a great team and they really, really needed that to not fall to 2-3 and into oblivion. It just hurts b/c their schedule is much weaker since this is still an east/west schedule but the rankings are straight 1-12.

Agree 100% with everything in the original post. I’d only add that I believe Stallings’ persistent refusal to use timeouts to stem momentum swings was a large contributing factor yesterday. As is his pattern, he let an 11 point lead get to 2 before grudgingly using a timeout. Granted it all happened very quickly but you could feel it in the gym that State was determined and effective as soon as the half began and we were a bit staggered by them in short order. He should have called time out after their first couple baskets to get the guys’ attention. By the time they cut it to 2 the damage was done, State was confident and it was a dogfight.

That is pretty much the story of the game – the first five minutes of the 2nd half we get outscored 20-2, not getting a single stop. The rest of the game we played pretty well, which is what makes this loss so disappointing. Even more disappointing was that it was the starters (generally) having a collective 5 minutes brain fart – don’t get me started on the “shot” that Steve simply let fly out of his hands out of bounds.

I’m not sure what the issue could have possibly been – the first half was good because we were able to build up the lead while playing our reserves a decent number of minutes. But we certainly didn’t build up a 20 point lead and this is the first time we’ve come out of the half even flat – we were practically sleepwalking.

I’m also not sure why the team is so tight at the end of games (though this is a relatively minor complaint). Amazingly, we had two end of game situations – tied with 1.3 seconds at the end of regulation and down one with 2.8 seconds at the end of overtime. Both times we had to go 70+ feet and both times we got excellent clean looks at the basket. And both times the player rushed a shot when they could have taken time to get a better attempt. I don’t know that you can have a better look at the end with Jenkins getting a clean 18’ jumper. He just had to no jump on the catch and he would have had plenty of time to square and release.

Players make mistakes. Not taking time to set for the shot was a mistake by John. I’m not sure Fes could have done better in the moment, but John could have.

Why in the world would you be flat after coming back at halftime. What do they serve in the locker room. Come on guys, it is you senior year. Don’t screw it up.

I think this would be less upsetting if we had fought possession by possession back and forth exchanging the lead and then lost in overtime. It’s, once again. blowing a lead in a “should have won” game that hurts. MSU is probably more talented, as was said above, but we showed in the first half that we could win- at home- and then we didn’t.

Strangely, I do believe we will beat Tennessee. I’m not sure I can stand it if we don’t.

I didn’t necessarily expect us to be ranked after the L but I didn’t expect to fall from 26 in both polls. We throttled Bama on the road. A place where they hadn’t lost an SEC game in a long time. And we lost to State by 1 in OT. A good State team that played very well. We should have won. It just shows the media and coaches are definitely thinking that this loss is reflective of the same team that lost to Indiana State and not the team that rolled 8 in a row. We’re still #32 in KenPom and I think our RPI is around 30 or so.

We’re okay and Fez is still recovering some what. I’m tired of that excuse but it’s true. When he’s 100% and playing great in March this is a different team. I’m not mad at Stallings. His play calling was perfect in that game. I understand it’s a coaches job to get players motivated but a coach can only do so much. It falls on the players too. That senior laden team should know better but they’ve done the same thing for 3 or 4 years so I’m not sure why we expected drastic changes when it seems to be consistent with these guys.

The first 5 minutes of the second half contained two phenomenons that both had to take place for us to blow the lead. Yes, MSU scored 20 points in 5 mintues and that is unacceptable, but we only scored 2. If we hold them to 12 points or score 10 during that period, the game ends differently. I am still not convinced that MSU could shoot 90% on threes in an empty gym. Fes is still not ready to be the run stopper on the offensive end. That has to be JT or Flamethrower and they did not get sufficient touches during that time. At least that is the way I saw it.

I actually am not that upset about the loss. I mean what MSU did in that first 5 minutes was pretty freaking unreal. That Steel kid came out of nowhere. It reminded me of the first time Chandler Parsons lit us up back in the ‘08-’09 home game. All of the sudden there was this kid I had never heard of just making three after three after three. Most of them were contested too. If he’s going to make those shots, my hats off to him. Also note the big change between when we blew the lead and when we built it: Renardo Sydney was in the game. He didn’t play almost the entire first half.

Lastly, while we did give up a 10 point lead, so did MSU. So if we’re looking for positives, we definitely fought back hard (albeit in part due to some crazy Golbourne shots).