StarkVegasSteve
01-19-2025, 05:38 PM
What an atmosphere, what a game, and what a night. The energy in the building last night willed us. Those are the types of crowds and energy we have been searching for since 2012.
1. Riley Kugel is unquestionably the biggest acquisition of the portal IN ANY SPORT at Mississippi State since the portal became a thing. Him not being able to qualify at Kansas and literally falling into our lap is the most un-Mississippi State thing to ever happen to the program.
2. We do not win that game in years past. I saw us lose that exact type of game dozens of times in the Howland era and have watched us lose that type of game a couple of times under Jans.
3. I said it 3 weeks ago and I will repeat it again, our portal class being outside the top 40 was, and definitely is now, an absolute joke. There are 40 teams who would fall over themselves to have the trio of Melendez, Harris, and Kugel right now.
4. Kugel is our best player and it is not even close. And here?s a little secret, he has been our best player since day 1. The talent for Kugel has always been off the charts and on an NBA level, but he just lost the confidence last year. He has found it and is playing at that level once again. From an NBA talent standpoint, he probably is our best player since Hood.
5. Whatever the hell is going on with Hubbard needs to be fixed. His confidence looks shot. He?s just not shooting with the type of unabashed confidence he did last year. For us to reach our potential, he needs to figure it out.
6. We have to find a PG. If Clary is not going to come back, which looks less and less likely by the game, we need to find one. Whether that be getting Warren some baptism by fire minutes or telling Harris or Matthews they need to do it, we have to find a true PG. Hubbard is just not that and I think that is part of the issue with him, I think he?s trying to do a bit too much.
7. I do not think it is an overstep to say this, the Melendez block and Kugel 3 sequence may have saved our season. They convert that and make it a 3 pt lead, I do not know if we could recover because they had EVERY BIT of momentum at that moment and it just flipped.
8. That is a damn good Ole Miss team. No way around it, that is a team that will be in the NCAAT and will win games. Beard building them up is just as impressive as what Jans has done here.
9. To the people that complain about people getting excited and getting into the game, please do us all a favor and go watch the game at home. Maybe someone with some school spirit will get your seats and make it an even better atmosphere. It is one thing to not be able to stand due to a legit reason, but to sit there the entire game, not cheering, is just BS. And by the way, completely your right to do that, but do not then complain about someone else standing and getting into the ballgame. You cannot have it both ways.
10. I know we have a lot of people that call Jans ?The Dentist? but for what he has done to this program and winning to create the atmosphere we have, you should call him ?The Doctor? because he has resurrected this program.
11. This is a S16 to E8 team presently. Get Hubbard right and the F4 is within reach. Obviously it takes a good draw to get to that point, but at full strength, we can stay on the court with anyone.
12. I actually went to the women?s game today and holy crap, they may be the worst ball handling team I have ever seen. I think 23 or 24 TOs and most were not the result of good defense. Purcell is going to have his work cut out for him to fix them.
1. Riley Kugel is unquestionably the biggest acquisition of the portal IN ANY SPORT at Mississippi State since the portal became a thing. Him not being able to qualify at Kansas and literally falling into our lap is the most un-Mississippi State thing to ever happen to the program.
2. We do not win that game in years past. I saw us lose that exact type of game dozens of times in the Howland era and have watched us lose that type of game a couple of times under Jans.
3. I said it 3 weeks ago and I will repeat it again, our portal class being outside the top 40 was, and definitely is now, an absolute joke. There are 40 teams who would fall over themselves to have the trio of Melendez, Harris, and Kugel right now.
4. Kugel is our best player and it is not even close. And here?s a little secret, he has been our best player since day 1. The talent for Kugel has always been off the charts and on an NBA level, but he just lost the confidence last year. He has found it and is playing at that level once again. From an NBA talent standpoint, he probably is our best player since Hood.
5. Whatever the hell is going on with Hubbard needs to be fixed. His confidence looks shot. He?s just not shooting with the type of unabashed confidence he did last year. For us to reach our potential, he needs to figure it out.
6. We have to find a PG. If Clary is not going to come back, which looks less and less likely by the game, we need to find one. Whether that be getting Warren some baptism by fire minutes or telling Harris or Matthews they need to do it, we have to find a true PG. Hubbard is just not that and I think that is part of the issue with him, I think he?s trying to do a bit too much.
7. I do not think it is an overstep to say this, the Melendez block and Kugel 3 sequence may have saved our season. They convert that and make it a 3 pt lead, I do not know if we could recover because they had EVERY BIT of momentum at that moment and it just flipped.
8. That is a damn good Ole Miss team. No way around it, that is a team that will be in the NCAAT and will win games. Beard building them up is just as impressive as what Jans has done here.
9. To the people that complain about people getting excited and getting into the game, please do us all a favor and go watch the game at home. Maybe someone with some school spirit will get your seats and make it an even better atmosphere. It is one thing to not be able to stand due to a legit reason, but to sit there the entire game, not cheering, is just BS. And by the way, completely your right to do that, but do not then complain about someone else standing and getting into the ballgame. You cannot have it both ways.
10. I know we have a lot of people that call Jans ?The Dentist? but for what he has done to this program and winning to create the atmosphere we have, you should call him ?The Doctor? because he has resurrected this program.
11. This is a S16 to E8 team presently. Get Hubbard right and the F4 is within reach. Obviously it takes a good draw to get to that point, but at full strength, we can stay on the court with anyone.
12. I actually went to the women?s game today and holy crap, they may be the worst ball handling team I have ever seen. I think 23 or 24 TOs and most were not the result of good defense. Purcell is going to have his work cut out for him to fix them.