Mens Hoops and March Madness

[MadDawg]

I appreciate the post Ari. I agree. It gets tiresome that I can't even come here and share with others my appreciation of the best team we've had in the past decade. For some reason everybody wants to compare this team to the best 1 or 2 teams we've ever had at MSU instead of just being able to appreciate this team for what it is... A pretty good tournament team and the first opportunity to see Mississippi State mens basketball win a bunch of games in a season in forever.

I get that many of you don't think we're a sweet 16 team. Why is it necessary to make that post after anything positive is said about this team? If anyone says anything good at all about this team someone follows it up with the fact that we just don't look that good and we're not a sweet 16 team like all those other teams we've had go to the sweet 16. By saying that you're basically saying we're not the 2nd best team we've ever had.... well no sh*t.

Taking a shit on the basketball team for not living up to expectations is a long held tradition on MSU message boards.

[BB30]

Taking a shit on the basketball team for not living up to expectations is a long held tradition on MSU message boards.

What were your expectations for an NIT team coming back the following year? Were you expecting to be a 1 or 2 seed?

I think a major problem with our fan base in most sports is an unrealistic expectation of what that particular team should do. When you have unrealistic expectations it is hard to get excited about a generally positive thing. This team had the same up and down game last year. Yes, we added some quality freshman but we didn't add a Zion that would come in and immediately take us to the next level.

This is another good building block year for our basketball program. If yall will sit back and enjoy Howland you won't be disappointed with our basketball program over the next several years.

I am not saying we shouldn't have high expectations, I am saying we should have realistic expectations that improve incrementally over time as a program continues to improve. If we had been to several NCAAT over the last few years and this became a trend like it did with Stans then yes, getting mad would be in order.

[sleepy dawg]

What were your expectations for an NIT team coming back the following year? Were you expecting to be a 1 or 2 seed?

I think a major problem with our fan base in most sports is an unrealistic expectation of what that particular team should do. When you have unrealistic expectations it is hard to get excited about a generally positive thing. This team had the same up and down game last year. Yes, we added some quality freshman but we didn't add a Zion that would come in and immediately take us to the next level.

This is another good building block year for our basketball program. If yall will sit back and enjoy Howland you won't be disappointed with our basketball program over the next several years.

I am not saying we shouldn't have high expectations, I am saying we should have realistic expectations that improve incrementally over time as a program continues to improve. If we had been to several NCAAT over the last few years and this became a trend like it did with Stans then yes, getting mad would be in order.

I just like to see our programs improving, and as long as we are improving and not falling backwards, I am pleased. That's what we are doing. We are slowly but surely getting better and I like that, and I'm happy with that.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

Good thing is the message board posts have nothing to do with results on the court. I guess we should just eliminate all preseason hype, not sell any season tickets, and just hope for the best?



I guess we can't be critical of the team and excited about making March Madness at the same time.

[MadDawg]

What were your expectations for an NIT team coming back the following year? Were you expecting to be a 1 or 2 seed?

I was hoping just to make the NCAAT. Just because I pointed out that shitting on the team for not living up to expectations is what our MB fanbase loves to do doesn't mean I was one.

[BB30]

Good thing is the message board posts have nothing to do with results on the court. I guess we should just eliminate all preseason hype, not sell any season tickets, and just hope for the best?



I guess we can't be critical of the team and excited about making March Madness at the same time.

You certainly can be. Being critical and being down right ignorant of facts are two completely different things.

[msbulldog]

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm going to fill out 1 bracket with MSU going all the way to the national championship for the hell of it. By the way, is anybody going to do a ED group bracket?

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm going to fill out 1 bracket with MSU going all the way to the national championship for the hell of it. By the way, is anybody going to do a ED group bracket?

75-1 at local sportsbook last time I checked. Worth the $5

[msstate7]

75-1 at local sportsbook last time I checked. Worth the $5

I got it at 100-1 at Mandalay Bay in Vegas. We need to win it so I can go back

[Lord McBuckethead]

I am amazed at how well we are doing considering
1. LP has lost His MOJO
2. Holman is a matador
3. Little Spoon is gone
4. Ado can't catch it
5.and we are playing 2 freshmen.

all things considered this is a great year.

Well hell, when you put it that way it does sound pretty good.
And everyone is excited to play in March.
And most of us that watch this team know we can definitely play better than we have.
At the same time, it is also hard to get excited when we shit the bed when we play someone with a pulse this last two months.
Just doesn't blow my skirt up.
With that, I hope they win every game and I will continue to watch every week. But damn, I am allowed to bitch about sub-par performances.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Our mens basketball team has a bad culture. Like it or not we play hard when we want and thats the way its been all year. If you say anything else you are lying to yourself. We are talented but selfish entitled and soft. Sorry if this offends you

[BuckyIsAB****]

And yes Im excited to be in the tourney again and I should appreciate it more but you know what a toxic culture is when you see it and last night was just another example of it. We lock up a tourney seed and dont give a shit about anything. Holman quit caring when someone mentioned him getting drafted just like our team did after we beat Mizzou. And you cant just flip the switch back on and start playing well, it doesnt work that way in any sport

[DeputyDawg94]

It seems to me the complainers about the complainers complain more than the complainers. If we all had the same opinions on everything why have message boards? There are overly negative people and overly positive people and people in between. It takes all 3. It’s gotten to where I hate to try and read a thread that because it always winds up in a pissing contest between the 2 opposites instead of a decent conversation. It’s not hard to figure out. If you see a post by someone you know you ain’t gonna agree with either don’t read it or don’t respond to it. Some of y’all act like teenage drama queens. It really gets old to those of us who just want to discus MSU sports good or bad.

[CadaverDawg]

Jean approves of this thread.

[CadaverDawg]

It seems to me the complainers about the complainers complain more than the complainers. If we all had the same opinions on everything why have message boards? There are overly negative people and overly positive people and people in between. It takes all 3. It’s gotten to where I hate to try and read a thread that because it always winds up in a pissing contest between the 2 opposites instead of a decent conversation. It’s not hard to figure out. If you see a post by someone you know you ain’t gonna agree with either don’t read it or don’t respond to it. Some of y’all act like teenage drama queens. It really gets old to those of us who just want to discus MSU sports good or bad.

Amen man

[chef dixon]

I don't think anyone is really upset with the end result from this season, but I certainly understand the viewpoint of being tough to watch at times.

I went and looked through some team stats for this season and really found some interesting stuff. We are currently sitting at #23 in the NET, but we fall in the 100-250 range on so many statistics out of 353 teams.

Here are some negative of note that I have found particularly frustrating (slightly nitpicking I realize):

Turnovers per game: 13.4 (ranks 207th)
Turnovers % per possession: 18.9% (ranks 230th)
Opponents offensive rebounds per game: 8.9 (ranks 234th)
Opponents blocks per game: 3.6 (ranks 264th)
Opponents fouls committed per game: 16.8 (ranks 268th)

We don't do anything extremely well, but we are a pretty solid shooting team with most of those statistics in the 50-100 ranking range. The only two stats that are anywhere close to our NET ranking are steals per game (22nd) and blocks (11th) per game, but that's only translating to 100th in turnovers forced and 137th in opponent FG%.

[sleepy dawg]

I don't think anyone is really upset with the end result from this season, but I certainly understand the viewpoint of being tough to watch at times.

I went and looked through some team stats for this season and really found some interesting stuff. We are currently sitting at #23 in the NET, but we fall in the 100-250 range on so many statistics out of 353 teams.

Here are some negative of note that I have found particularly frustrating (slightly nitpicking I realize):

Turnovers per game: 13.4 (ranks 207th)
Turnovers % per possession: 18.9% (ranks 230th)
Opponents offensive rebounds per game: 8.9 (ranks 234th)
Opponents blocks per game: 3.6 (ranks 264th)
Opponents fouls committed per game: 16.8 (ranks 268th)

We don't do anything extremely well, but we are a pretty solid shooting team with most of those statistics in the 50-100 ranking range. The only two stats that are anywhere close to our NET ranking are steals per game (22nd) and blocks (11th) per game, but that's only translating to 100th in turnovers forced and 137th in opponent FG%.

That is really odd to me, and I verified you're right. How can you be ranked so high in steals and blocks but so low in turnovers forced.... not even margin, but forced. I figured steels would be the primary factor for turnovers followed by blocks. What else is there besides stepping out of bounds or offensive fouls? I figured those wouldn't be enough to sway it back that much. I'm sure I'm missing something major here.

[Ari Gold]

It seems to me the complainers about the complainers complain more than the complainers. If we all had the same opinions on everything why have message boards? There are overly negative people and overly positive people and people in between. It takes all 3. It’s gotten to where I hate to try and read a thread that because it always winds up in a pissing contest between the 2 opposites instead of a decent conversation. It’s not hard to figure out. If you see a post by someone you know you ain’t gonna agree with either don’t read it or don’t respond to it. Some of y’all act like teenage drama queens. It really gets old to those of us who just want to discus MSU sports good or bad.

Not calling you out, but this team has taken more shit and shown less support than any team that I can remeber for a squad that is locked into and has been locked into a tourney bid for a while now.
I personally don’t give a shit what an individual fan thinks of this team. It’s just embarrassing and laughable since all we have been asking for the last decade is for a team to be competitive and make it to the dance. Well we are there and it’s not enough ..
If an outsider was to only look at the support, tweets, message boards ect and not results on the court they would come to the conclusion that we might be a .500 team and no where near a tourney team

Just like IYOK stated..... We as a fan base bitched for a winner, we have a winning team and some still bitch about that..

[smootness]

Not calling you out, but this team has taken more shit and shown less support than any team that I can remeber for a squad that is locked into and has been locked into a tourney for a while now.
I personally don’t give a shit what an individual fan thinks of this team. It’s just embarrassing
It’s laughable since all we have been asking for the last decade is for a team to be competitive and make it to the dance.
Well we have that..
If an outsider was to only look at the support, tweets, message boards ect and not results on the court they would come to the conclusion that we might be a .500 team and no where near a tourney team

Just like IYOK stated..... We as a fan base bitched for a winner, we have a winning team and some still bitch about that..

I think the excitement came before the season that we finally had a winner. And we have won...but not at a great pace since the start of 2019. It's hard for people to realize that the SEC is much better in basketball as a whole now, so only a decent record in-conference doesn't seem great, and a lot of our good 'resume' wins just aren't exciting.

I'll ask this - since pretty much any talk on a message board among fans is going to be related to specific games, give me one game that should have led to a lot of excitement among the fanbase. Missouri? South Carolina? Squeaking one out @UGA? Arkansas? Alabama?

I haven't seen you guys posting like you're super excited or pumped, either. I get that some people are irrationally down on the team, but that will always be the case among some in a fanbase. The fact is, this team simply hasn't won a big, meaningful game in a while, and they've mixed in some disappointing play and never seem to quite do all they're capable of doing.

It's one thing to step back, see a 6 seed in the Tournament and say, we should all be thrilled. It's another to watch this team game in and game out and have to try to get excited about what is rarely exciting play. Again, this will change once the Tourney is actually here. Then, being in it and a decent seed will get people excited, just like you say it should. But right now, all we have are games that just don't get people into it.

[Ari Gold]

I think the excitement came before the season that we finally had a winner. And we have won...but not at a great pace since the start of 2019. It's hard for people to realize that the SEC is much better in basketball as a whole now, so only a decent record in-conference doesn't seem great, and a lot of our good 'resume' wins just aren't exciting.

I'll ask this - since pretty much any talk on a message board among fans is going to be related to specific games, give me one game that should have led to a lot of excitement among the fanbase. Missouri? South Carolina? Squeaking one out @UGA? Arkansas? Alabama?

I haven't seen you guys posting like you're super excited or pumped, either. I get that some people are irrationally down on the team, but that will always be the case among some in a fanbase. The fact is, this team simply hasn't won a big, meaningful game in a while, and they've mixed in some disappointing play and never seem to quite do all they're capable of doing.

It's one thing to step back, see a 6 seed in the Tournament and say, we should all be thrilled. It's another to watch this team game in and game out and have to try to get excited about what is rarely exciting play. Again, this will change once the Tourney is actually here. Then, being in it and a decent seed will get people excited, just like you say it should. But right now, all we have are games that just don't get people into it.

Arky beat LSU in Baton Rouge
Bama beat UK
USCe beat Aub
UGA and Usce beat Fla in in Gainesville
So 5-2 against that bunch is pretty good.

it doesn’t have to be all positive 24/7 . Damn I get it this team is frustrating to watch at times and can play bad.
I didn’t get how y’all can’t see the point I’m making and a handful have tried to get across.
The positive posts, tweets , ect are 1 for about every 10 bad.

And this thread proved that .. that’s why I did iit
I wanted to see how many positive responses and good talking points I would get from it . And I proved my point .. go back and read them...