One thing that I haven't seen anyone here touch upon, was that Mississippi State had a relatively short turn-around for the Finals game today, after playing Kentucky late last night. The Semifinals started late regardless IMO, with the South Carolina-Arkansas game starting at 5 PM, then the Miss St.-Kentucky game starting at 7:30 PM. That means their game ended around 9:30 PM, and then they need to get back to the hotel, get something to eat, probably have a team meeting or two, then by the time they get to sleep it's pretty late.
Then the game today was at 2:00 pm. Could the Bulldogs have simply not gotten enough rest for today?