STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University men’s basketball coach Rick Stansbury’s body language after Saturday’s upset loss at home to the University of Georgia told the story.
The 14-year coaching veteran had no answer why his team had no energy and his players had no respect for a Georgia team that walked away from a stunned crowd of 7,610 at Humphrey Coliseum with a 70-68 overtime victory.
Stansbury could only point to overconfidence as an explanation for why his team had no energy and played with complete disregard for the an opponent in what turned out to be the team’s worst loss of the season.
“My number one concern was what beat us tonight,” Stansbury said. “We needed to be able to put Thursday night’s game (a victory against the University of Mississippi at Humphrey Coliseum) behind us and to get our emotion and energy back up to where it needs to be in 36 hours. It is obvious it did not happen against a very good Georgia team.”
MSU (19-6, 6-4 Southeastern Conference), which was No. 20 in the latest Associated Press poll, could fall out for the first time this season since being ranked Nov. 21. It was outworked and outplayed in every hustle category by a team that was 316th in the country in field goal percentage, 297th in points per game, and 247th in rebounding margin. Georgia (12-12, 3-7) had 18 offensive rebounds, including four apiece from sophomore forwards Donte’ Williams and Marcus Thornton and a 6-foot-5 freshman guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
“We’re growing up as a club,” Georgia senior guard Gerald Robinson Jr., said. “The young guys are starting to learn, and we’re starting to really get into a nice rhythm. Everybody is starting to learn how to play at this level.”
Georgia coach Mark Fox, who stated his admiration for MSU by saying he has ranked Stansbury’s team higher than its number every week in his USA Today Coaches poll ballot, won his fifth game against a ranked team in less than three years in Athens. Georgia became the first school to knock off a ranked team in SEC play this season. Unranked Tennessee followed up the outcome hours later with a win at the No. 8 University of Florida.
“We beat a terrific basketball team, a team we had great respect for before we came here,” Fox said. “So to leave here with a win, it’s very gratifying.”
In a much less raucous environment than MSU saw Thursday in a 70-60 victory against Ole Miss, MSU allowed a Georgia team that had only won two games all season away from home to stay within three points for the final 33 minutes.
“Nowhere in that game did I feel we got that emotion to where it needed to be,” Stansbury said. “When you don’t get to that level, that’s what can happen.”
Caldwell Pope, a freshman from Greenville, Ga., was 6-for-12 from beyond the 3-point arc for a team-high 20 points. The school’s first recruited McDonald’s All-American out of high school in almost 20 years hit the final game-winning 3-pointer to put Georgia up 68-66 with 1 minute, 8 seconds to go.
“That was a big-time shot that big-time players make,” Robinson Jr. said. “I don’t care what year you are classification-wise, when you hit shots like that you’re a star.”
In the final possession, MSU tried to force the ball to senior point guard Dee Bost, but Georgia’s double team of the 6-3 perimeter threat forced him to put up an off-balance 3-pointer as the final horn sounded.
Bost said after the game he expected Stansbury to use one of his three timeouts in that sequence, but he didn’t use that as an excuse for the failed execution.
“It was not an excuse from playing back-to-back games,” Bost said. “We just did not bring it like we should have. I thought we would have found a way during the game, but I have to give them their credit. They made a lot of shots.”
MSU will play at 8 p.m. Tuesday (ESPNU) at LSU before heading to a return game against Auburn University.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.