5 Key Takeaways from Mississippi State’s 88-66 Loss To Auburn

5. Auburn is the No. 1 team in the country for a reason

It's only been a day since Auburn was pushed into the No. 1 spot in all of the polls, and it didn't have much of a problem playing like it. The home atmosphere helped with the energy throughout, but the team was just that strong.

It was a step faster, more aggressive, more decisive, and a whole lot sharper. It brought the energy, Misssissippi State couldn't match it, and this was never interesting.

It was a Tuesday night road game against the best team in America. The Bulldogs need to shake it off and move on.

4. Johni Broome wasn't missed

The Tigers didn't have the best player in America not named Cooper Flagg. Their star, Johni Broome, was out with an ankle injury, but the team picked up the slack with a huge effort from the starting five. Mississippi State needed to wear this bunch out with a big push in the second half, but it never happened.

The Bulldogs outrebounded the Tigers, but that's partly because there were plenty of chances off misses because ...

3. The Mississippi State threes weren't dropping

Give Auburn credit for forcing the mistakes and making the Mississippi State offense a little off, but the threes weren't falling even when there was a chance.

Mississippi State hit just 24% of its threes in a mid-November win over Utah, That was its worst outside shooting day of the season, the team hit just 26% from three in the loss to Butler, and ...

12.5%. That's what Mississippi State hit from three against Auburn. Just 3-of-24, and had that been even slightly better the tone and tenor of this might have changed. It didn't help that ...

2. The Bulldogs couldn't stop making mistakes

Auburn is No. 1 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio. So how did it really overcome the absence of Johni Broome? It forced Mississippi State to screw up time and again.

The Bulldogs turned it over a season-high 16 times - the previous high was 14.

To be fair, Mississippi State's defense forced a slew of errors, too, but with just five assists, nothng happening at the rim - Auburn came up with ten blocks - and all those turnovers, this didn't work. The team needed to play a near-perfect game and wasn't even close. And now ...

1. There's a big problem for Mississippi State

There was absolutely no shame in losing to Kentucky last weekend. That's a strong Wildcat team that just beat No. 11 Texas A&M 81-69.

There's certainly no shame in losing at Auburn. It doesn't matter if this was by two or 22, it's still a loss.

Ole Miss just whacked Alabama by ten in Tuscaloosa. It might be a home game this Saturday for Mississippi State against the hated Rebels, but there's not much shame if there's a problem in that against a fantastic team.

There certainly wouldn't be any shame losing at Tennessee, or at South Carolina, or against Alabama ...

This trickle of acceptable losses could become an avalanche in a hurry.

Beating Ole Miss would be a very, very big deal.