The short answer...Mississippi State has an SEC caliber big man, and they rode him like the last train to heaven in their 83-68 trouncing of Georgia.
Our inside guys struggled with fouls all night. Bliss didn't top his GT performance from last year in which he pulled 5 fouls in 4 minutes with a turnover, but he came close with 5 fouls in 5 minutes and two turnovers. I don't point that stat out to bash Bliss. It isn't his fault that he's a 6'10" version of Kris Nordholz (without the jumper). Nor is it his fault that he starts. He's giving it his all, and he's doing it while hurt.
It just is what it is.
The entire box score is a disaster:
- We missed 45 field goals and 8 free throws. Yet, we only grabbed 15 offensive boards to MSU's 34 defensive boards. (note: ESPN.com has us at 12 offensive boards)
- Georgia had 16 defensive rebounds to MSU's 14 offensive boards. Ouch
- We shot 14 percent from the free throw line in the second half.
- Mike Mercer went 0-12 from the field after starting off 2-2, and Gaines went 1-7 from the field after starting off 2-3.
- Mississippi State shot better from the field (58 percent) than we shot from the free throw line (46 percent) for the game.
On the bright side:
- Stukes had an OK game with 17 points on near 50% shooting. Also no turnovers.
- The team had 14 assists. Over half of Georgia's 25 buckets came off assists.
- We forced 13 steals to MSU's 2, and we only turned the ball over 10 times to their 19.
Bottom line:
If you can't rebound, shoot or defend, it's tough to win. We will still finish with a winning regular season, but we need post-season wins to finish with a winning record overall.
Otherwise, it was a good game.
pwd
2 comments:
I wrote about the NIT on my blog... I think we will make it and I did give the reasons why people believe we won't. If Tech or Carolina go to the NIT and we don't, that's absolutely ridiculous. Carolina's major accomplishments were beating Florida twice and beating Bama... other than that they are a bad team.
There's almost no way Tech makes the NIT unless we run off a four game win streak which would need to include 2 wins in the ACC tournament.
It could happen, but I find it highly doubtful.
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