Mississippi State arrived in Charlotte, N.C. for the NCAA Tournament with no shortage of confidence after a run to the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals, knowing that if everything went right, the Bulldogs could fight tooth and nail with any team in the country.
Very little went right for head coach Chris Jans and company Thursday. Mississippi State was ice-cold from long distance, struggled to piece together stops on the defensive end and lost the rebounding battle to a smaller Michigan State team. The West region’s No. 8 seed Spartans sent the No. 9 seed Bulldogs home early with a 69-51 defeat.
“That was the story of the start of the game — us turning the ball over way too much,” Jans said. “They didn’t do anything different than we anticipated or that we hadn’t prepared for. They just did what they do at a high level. They got in those gaps. Their guards have really strong hands and they’re very ball-hawkish when you try to drive it in there. That really hurt us early.”
A battle-tested Michigan State team that played the 10th-hardest non-conference schedule in the country came out firing offensively, making eight of its first 11 shots and racing out to a 20-8 lead after the first nine minutes. Jans had talked about the Spartans’ tendency to push the pace offensively before the game, and they found plenty of openings in Mississippi State’s outstanding perimeter defense, finishing 10-for-23 from 3-point range.
Michigan State’s leading scorer, Tyson Walker, led all scorers with 19 points and was 7-for-12 from the floor and 3-for-6 behind the arc. Jadin Akins had something of a coming-out party with 15 points and seven rebounds, and neither he nor Walker turned the ball over.
Both teams struggled to take care of the ball — Michigan State committed 16 turnovers while the Bulldogs (21-14) committed 15 — but the Spartans (20-14) had a 29-19 edge in points off of those turnovers, finding clean looks in transition both in the paint and from outside.
“They were very well prepared,” Jans said. “We had a hard time keeping their guards in front of us. They were getting downhill on us for themselves and creating for others. We actually ended up playing variations of different zones, especially in the second half, but it didn’t slow them down that much.”
Mississippi State turned the ball over five times in the first eight minutes, leading to 10 Michigan State points, and defensive stalwart Cameron Matthews saw limited action in the first half after picking up two early fouls. Big man Tolu Smith was also silent in the first half with two points, no rebounds and three turnovers.
Only freshman guard Josh Hubbard kept the Bulldogs within arm’s length. Hubbard drained back-to-back 3-pointers in the final two minutes of the half to trim Mississippi State’s deficit to five, only for Malik Hall to respond with a floater at the buzzer that gave the Spartans a 31-24 lead.
D.J. Jeffries, who had missed three games in February with a knee injury, injured his hip in the Bulldogs’ SEC Tournament loss to Auburn last Saturday and had not practiced leading up to Thursday’s game. He played just 16 minutes but still managed to score eight points, knocking down two of his four 3-point attempts.
“It was tough,” Jeffries said. “You know me, whatever it takes, I’m going to try to go out there and push through. I couldn’t finish the game. I tried to do everything I could to go out there.”
Michigan State started the second half just as hot as it did the first, making 10 of 13 shots and building the lead back up to double digits. Mississippi State, meanwhile, could never get going. Hubbard was held to two second-half points and the Bulldogs missed 14 of their last 15 shots, finishing an abysmal 6-for-27 from deep.
Smith scored seven of his nine points in the second half, but was limited to two rebounds, a big reason why the Spartans finished with a 35-29 edge on the glass.
“I have been here a while,” Smith said. “Mississippi State basketball means everything to me. Hopefully I left it better than when I got here.”
Smith, Jeffries and Dashawn Davis have played their final game for the Bulldogs, all players who started their collegiate careers elsewhere but stuck with Jans and his vision for Mississippi State. Matthews and Shakeel Moore have the option to return for one more year.
The Bulldogs remain winless in NCAA Tournament games since 2008, but Jans has taken them to the Big Dance in each of his first two years leading the program, becoming the first coach in program history to do so. He will undoubtedly dip into the transfer portal to help build next year’s team, but if Matthews and Moore return, Mississippi State will have a solid foundation in place alongside Hubbard.
“Endings are tough. You don’t prepare for walking into those locker rooms and how you’re going to handle it because you think you’re going to win the game,” Jans said. “I thanked the guys that have been here since we arrived as a staff, just thanked them for believing in us and having some blind faith in us when they didn’t have to.”
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