Alabama @ Mississippi St (9) - 2/23/20

[IWearShoes]

Is there a press conference link anyone can provide?

SportsTalk Mississippi @SportsTalkMiss

MSU Women’s Hoops: Alabama 66 MSU 64

www.pscp.tv

 

[Plebe]

I do find it interesting, and kinda typical, that nobody is acknowledging how well Bama played down the stretch. They won the game more than MSU lost it IMO. Congrats to Coach Curry, who has certainly had a struggle there.

Bama had a really shaky start to their season with the loss at home to Hampton (what?). But they've recovered and if not for the overtime loss to Georgia and the buzzer-beater by Rennia Davis, they could be looking at an NCAA bid. Like Georgia, Bama is a better team than people know.

 

[IWearShoes]

No, it was about the quality of the conference, in a sense. Not that the SEC isn't a better conference, which clearly it is. What I meant was that the difference gets overstated, and that going undefeated year in and year out in a weaker conference like the AAC isn't the cinch that people assume it to be. Even a very good and historically consistent team like Mississippi State is prone to a loss like this.

I agree completely, and I'm pretty sure I'm not one who disparages UConn's incredible dominance of the AAC. It's certainly not easy to do.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

This only reinforces my point. MSU just lost to an AAC 3rd place-level team. So I guess it's not quite the "rest" that some people claim.

I'm not sure what you are arguing, so I'll just bow out.

 

[Plebe]

miss state gave South Carolina a competitive game though.

Again -- only reinforces my point. My point was not to put down Mississippi State. It was to point out the underestimated difficulty of dominating the AAC without a loss. Even a very good team that nearly took down the mighty Gamecocks can lose to a Cincinnati-level team.

And while we're on that topic, Temple gave SC a competitive game as well. Another AAC team.

 

[GoDawgs4]

Also as was mentioned earlier, give credit to Alabama, they just flat outplayed us down the stretch and deserved to win the game.
It was fitting that they won it at the buzzer as we did not deserve to eek out a win today.

I just looked at the stats. Alabama had more rebounds, more steals and less turnovers than we did. That generally will get you a win when you win those three areas.

 

[ConwayGmck]

We have been playing with Fire for a while now.

Today it is going to bite us I believe.

Dancing around a nest of rattlesnakes....will end up getting you burned.......

 

[ConwayGmck]

I'm absolutely serious. In fact, Cincinnati is ahead of Alabama in Massey.

It's always foolish to categorize an entire conference strength on the basis of one single game played within a conference season. The AAC as a conference is 9th in RPI, compared to the SEC being 4th.

The AAC have 2 members in the Q1, and 5 - less than half the conference - inside of Q2 tier levels. Cincinnati is the 4th-best member of the AAC RPI-wise. The SEC by comparison have almost as many members (4) in the top 25 RPI as the AAC has inside Q2 tier level, have 6 in Q1 tier overall and 9 members - more than half the SEC - inside of Q2 tier levels. Alabama is the 8th-best RPI team in the SEC.

Alabama is 1-7 versus Q1 opponents and 3-10 vs Q1+Q2 opponents. They have a 65 RPI against the 40th-ranked overall SOS, and 77 non-conf. RPI against the 130th-ranked non-conf. SOS. Cincinnati is 1-4 vs Q1 and 4-7 vs Q1+Q2 opponents. They have the 77th-ranked RPI against the 103rd SOS, and 130th-ranked non-conf. RPI against the 170th ranked non-conf. SOS. They have the better overall record and better conference record between the two, playing a weaker overall schedule and a weaker conference schedule.

Mississippi is an an outlier for the SEC, with a 286 RPI. The Q3 RPI tier involves the 101-200 RPI teams, but even if it meant 101-150 RPI teams, all SEC members other than Ole Miss would still be Q3-tier or above teams, while 7 AAC members - more than half of the conference - would be outside or below Q3-tier. As it is, with Q3 being 101-200 RPI teams, the AAC still have 3 members of a 12-member conference in Q4, compared to only 1 member of a 14-member SEC in Q4.

Overall the AAC is much worse than the SEC as a conference....I would hesitate to make an argument regarding an entire conference of teams based on where one single team from one conference ranks compared to another single team from another conference. As it is, Massey rated Cincinnati just above Alabama (64th to 65th), with essentially the same rating result (1.73). Apparently Cincinnati is some decimal points better than Alabama, but those ratings also won't be updated until tomorrow - they do not include today's games. So lets see where they rank for Massey when the ratings are more updated.

But again, Alabama (8th team in SEC) and Cincinnati (4th team in AAC) are essentially neck-and-neck - that's not the greatest argument for the AAC and SEC being compatible conferences, in my opinion.....

 

[ConwayGmck]

Right. “They all just stood there...”. That is the problem. Again, that obviously all starts and stops with his ability to get them motivated. However what play call are you specifically referencing?

This is something that obviously Schaefer needs to address and get his entire staff working on to improve. Mississippi State lost a very strong position regarding regular-season title opportunities - losing 2 of their last 3 games took away any chances they had of sharing the title - but there's still a ton left on the table for them to accomplish.

Coach Schaefer should tell his team about South Carolina and Tennessee during the 2014-15 season: They ended up sharing the SEC regular-season title, just the 2nd time in SEC history the title was not won out-right. Both USC and UT went 15-1 on the season, and it came down to the very final regular-season game for South Carolina, against then-13th ranked Kentucky in Lexington (coincidentally enough, where USC played today). USC came in #2 in the nation at 27-1, 15-0 and lost 67-56. Tennessee had lost only to USC earlier, but won it's final game against Vanderbilt decisively and won a share of their 18th regular-season title.

Staying in the hunt and continuing to play strong can often get rewarded in the end. Miss. State still has the chance of a great season ahead of them, as long as they stay strong.....

 

[ConwayGmck]

We need South Carolina to whoop A&M badly.

We will get right on it!

 

[SECbbfan24]

Miss St has been flirting with trouble for quite some time it was bound to catch up to them. Weird thing for Miss St is I feel their upperclassmen have all hit a wall before the freshmen/young kids have right now. AEH, Bibby, and Danberry are not playing the way they should be. Jackson and Carter are basically holding that starting lineup together right now.

Maybe its just me, but I feel like Vic currently has no idea how to manage some of his rotations either. He also has an extremely short leash with his bench but then allows certain starters to make the same mistakes over and over with no consequences. Great teams have players 1 through 5 that can score and make things happen with the basketball, a couple of kids are lacking a bit in this department right now. Matharu for example use to be a nice spark for like 6-8 points a game, after one bad shot she is immediately yanked for the rest of the game which must be demoralizing. They need better permitter shooting, Bibby has not been the same since the injury/wearing brace. Danberry is in a big funk. M. Taylor outside a couple moments this year provides very little to no threat to score. For whatever reason, they now don't let Mingo Young attempt to shoot the 3 despite always being open.

 

[Plebe]

Miss St has been flirting with trouble for quite some time it was bound to catch up to them. Weird thing for Miss St is I feel their upperclassmen have all hit a wall before the freshmen/young kids have right now. AEH, Bibby, and Danberry are not playing the way they should be. Jackson and Carter are basically holding that starting lineup together right now.

Maybe its just me, but I feel like Vic currently has no idea how to manage some of his rotations either. He also has an extremely short leash with his bench but then allows certain starters to make the same mistakes over and over with no consequences. Great teams have players 1 through 5 that can score and make things happen with the basketball, a couple of kids are lacking a bit in this department right now. Matharu for example use to be a nice spark for like 6-8 points a game, after one bad shot she is immediately yanked for the rest of the game which must be demoralizing. They need better permitter shooting, Bibby has not been the same since the injury/wearing brace. Danberry is in a big funk. M. Taylor outside a couple moments this year provides very little to no threat to score. For whatever reason, they now don't let Mingo Young attempt to shoot the 3 despite always being open.

They're just in a bit of a bad funk here. The team that struggled with Auburn and lost to Alabama just isn't the same team that rolled relatively comfortably through most of its schedule and nearly took down SC.

I still think MSU is one of the more dangerous teams in the 3 to 4 seed range. Of all coaches, Vic is one who can figure things out in time for the tournament.

 

[ConwayGmck]

I do find it interesting, and kinda typical, that nobody is acknowledging how well Bama played down the stretch. They won the game more than MSU lost it IMO. Congrats to Coach Curry, who has certainly had a struggle there.

I agree. Curry has an ability to get her teams - regardless of depth or talent level - prepared for opponents, and they play hard for 40 minutes mostly. They have losses of 15 pts to USC, 10 and 4 to UK, 5 to Texas A&M, and only one bad loss of 18 pts to Arkansas. They also have losses of 2 pts to Tennessee, 9 to Iowa State, a 1-pt OT loss to Georgia, and a 3-pt loss to SoCal. Other than the Arkansas loss, not really any bad losses anywhere there, all Q1 and Q2 opponents. They have what would be their worst loss on the season - a 3-pt. loss in their season-opener to Q3 Hampton. Alabama is IMO a quality non Q1 opponent this season - they won't make the NCAAT, but should have a chance for the WNIT......

 

[SimpleDawg]

I feel like the SEC this year is hard to figure out. You can reason it's weak, but the parity is up a little. Some teams are gaining a bit of ground. There are some strange things going on here.

Florida just beat an Arkansas team that should've been far superior. A team that scores 103 against Kentucky there's no way you can explain away that type of strong play.... they should've been far better than Florida, case closed. Florida also takes down Kentucky - a Howard-less Kentucky but nonetheless it was the same team that lost to Mississippi State by 46 points. Arkansas then scores at will against Kentucky even with Howard, and Mississippi State couldn't score at all against them.

Auburn has come close several times this year to upsetting a far better opponent, but just couldn't finish the deal otherwise their record might be somewhere around .500 --- I think they're in the camp with Alabama, Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and Vanderbilt. They have some good players but don't have the system in place to win consistently.

Alabama stays fairly competitive against everyone so far. Worst defeats were 15 against South Carolina, and 16 against Arkansas otherwise they were in it against A&M and Kentucky and then takes down Mississippi State.

A&M has looked shaky against far weaker opponents even with Carter. They look like they're finding their groove now and could be a tough out during the NCAA tournament, but....then sometimes they're so flat you wonder if they're simply comfortable playing the styles of certain teams, but just cannot play well against some others.

There's only 2 conclusive things. Ole Miss is terrible. And South Carolina is the best team. But then, the only team South Carolina hasn't thrashed since Temple is Mississippi State........ so there's a lot of things to wonder here.


I don't know what's going on with our team, but it looks like we've had 2 bad streaks. The one that started with Stanford in Victoria, and then carried over to West Virginia and then letting the Rajun Cajuns Louisiana hang with us in the 4th quarter by single digits. And then the next awful streak is Kentucky-Auburn-Alabama, obviously. The first bad 3 game streak didn't last long. Let's hope this one follows that same suit. It could be as simple as just mental fatigue in need of a battery recharge.

 

[militarydog]

Miss St has been flirting with trouble for quite some time it was bound to catch up to them. Weird thing for Miss St is I feel their upperclassmen have all hit a wall before the freshmen/young kids have right now. AEH, Bibby, and Danberry are not playing the way they should be. Jackson and Carter are basically holding that starting lineup together right now.

Maybe its just me, but I feel like Vic currently has no idea how to manage some of his rotations either. He also has an extremely short leash with his bench but then allows certain starters to make the same mistakes over and over with no consequences. Great teams have players 1 through 5 that can score and make things happen with the basketball, a couple of kids are lacking a bit in this department right now. Matharu for example use to be a nice spark for like 6-8 points a game, after one bad shot she is immediately yanked for the rest of the game which must be demoralizing. They need better permitter shooting, Bibby has not been the same since the injury/wearing brace. Danberry is in a big funk. M. Taylor outside a couple moments this year provides very little to no threat to score. For whatever reason, they now don't let Mingo Young attempt to shoot the 3 despite always being open.

I agree regarding J Danberry. Coach Schaefer has even talked about the team feeding off her energy. He said they similarly feed off her negativity when she is in a funk. As I’ve said before her best year was year before last when she could be brought in as a defensive stopper and spark on offense when she is hot.

I disagree regarding A Espinoza-Hunter and C Bibby. The former is hurt by the team around her not being as strong where she could set up to shoot threes. The latter is still recovering but she is probably our most physical player.

The biggest issues this year are no players are truly separating themselves except R Jackson and J Carter (who is out of position) and that most all these players were used to being primary options before arriving. In the past he hasn’t gotten players used to being the primary scorer so it was easier to get them to accept roles like defending the best player or setting picks.

 

[Plebe]

Okay I rewatched the second half of this game because I'd missed most of it earlier today. To be honest I think MSU got a bit unlucky. During Alabama's 11-0 run in the 4th quarter, there were two plays where the ball richocheted or deflected off a defender and right into the hands of the Bama player, followed immediately by a bucket. Up until then MSU had been in almost complete control of the game. Suddenly Bama seized the momentum, with help from some frankly lucky bounces, and then it was a dogfight in the final minutes.

Aside from that, I agree with the poster who said that Bama deserves credit for this win. They dared to believe they could win this game, even when they fell behind, and they were rewarded for their belief. Also, that tip-in by Abrams on the final play was pretty amazing.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

I've posted much of the same comments for the season, including how we were early in the year. We have no true alpha, lack post depth, and have been too inconsistent shooting the basketball. Rikea Jackson has been very impressive as the season has worn on and Carter has overall been pretty solid.

No shame in losing to KY or SC, those teams played well. But it took Myah Taylor going off to beat A&M at home, Jackson pulling it out at Auburn, and then today losing in Starkville to a less than threatening Alabama team. We've not played well going down the stretch and that's what concerns me a the same comments I had at the seasons beginning still seem to be plaguing them even after a year of practice and competition

Again, not every team can bring it on every night but I am disappointed AEH and Bibby haven't been able to do more. Bibby is still impacting the game even though she shot is off. AEH has barely played and we all know she's no defensive stopper but she can rarely get enough time to find a groove. It's fine to have different players who are all capable of making a contribution but no one or two players have been the emotional or game on the line difference makers even if the don't always win.

I still like our team but we need to win out and at least get to the semis of finals of the SEC tournament to solidify our hosting rounds one and two.

 

[eebmg]

Not really a MSST follower but caught a bit of the game in the 4Q and was floored when I saw after an Alabama steal and transition drive for a layup, every MSST player just jogging (actually closer to walking) back and not even challenging the layup. And I expected Schaefer to go nuts and turn a shade of purple only he can pull off but nothing???

 

[Jmsdawg]

I do find it interesting, and kinda typical, that nobody is acknowledging how well Bama played down the stretch. They won the game more than MSU lost it IMO. Congrats to Coach Curry, who has certainly had a struggle there.

Do not agree, we lost that game because we left the shooters wide open. Bama left our players wide open and we refused to take the shot. So they packed the inside and we continued to go inside. We have outside shooters but they appear to have lost all confidence in the outside shot that they just do not take it.

 

[IWearShoes]

Do not agree, we lost that game because we left the shooters wide open. Bama left our players wide open and we refused to take the shot. So they packed the inside and we continued to go inside. We have outside shooters but they appear to have lost all confidence in the outside shot that they just do not take it.

You and I definitely don't agree. Occasionally you have to notice when the opponent does things well and beats you. We are the better team 4 out of 5 times, but not this time.

 

[IWearShoes]

Okay I rewatched the second half of this game because I'd missed most of it earlier today. To be honest I think MSU got a bit unlucky. During Alabama's 11-0 run in the 4th quarter, there were two plays where the ball richocheted or deflected off a defender and right into the hands of the Bama player, followed immediately by a bucket. Up until then MSU had been in almost complete control of the game. Suddenly Bama seized the momentum, with help from some frankly lucky bounces, and then it was a dogfight in the final minutes.

Aside from that, I agree with the poster who said that Bama deserves credit for this win. They dared to believe they could win this game, even when they fell behind, and they were rewarded for their belief. Also, that tip-in by Abrams on the final play was pretty amazing.

Glad you rewatched it and posted this. I didn't want to say too much and appear to be justifying a loss MSU deserved, but I really was impressed with Bama down the stretch. They got breaks, but also hit big shots with defenders in their face and they defended hard to the end. It was an impressive comeback.

I've seen MSU wear a lot of teams out and win easily in the 4th quarter and this one felt like those, but it wasn't in the end.

I agree on the tip in. That's a play you don't see finished much in the women's game, especially by a smaller player.