Gator Chomped: 5 Key Takeaways from Mississippi State’s Blowout Loss to Florida

Florida 81, Mississippi State 68

5. Florida is really, really good at college basketball

The Gators lost 6-11 Alex Condon right away to an apparent ankle injury. There went Florida's best rebounder.

The Gators were without guard Alijah Martin. There went Florida's second-leading scorer.

This was an undermanned Florida team on a Tuesday night in mid-February after beating Auburn a few days earlier, and it had problems early. Everything roared in the second half, the team started hitting everything, and it showed why it's the No. 3 team in the country, but ...

4. That was a ROUGH Mississippi State performance

Fine, so the Bulldogs lost. Again, Florida is pretty good at this college hoops thing right now. But all of a sudden, after a strong first half, the defense fell flat, the D from three went bye-bye, and just like that the game was gone.

The offense became too reliant on Josh Hubbard from the outside and KeShawn Murphy inside - there wasn't enough happening from everyone else - and now, with this loss ...

3. The Mississippi State home stand of truth is over

This was when the Bulldogs were suppsoed to make a massive national statement. They had a bit run of three home games in four dates, the Hump was hyped, the team was battling through a tough stretch, and then ....

(Cue the sad trombone) Womp, womp

Alabama came to town and Mississippi State did everything right but pull out the late win. But Bama is one of the nation's top teams - there wouldn't be a problem against Missouri.

88-61 Tigers.

After a too-hard win over Georgia on the road, Mississippi State came back home to deal with Florida, and ... nope.

Three big home games. Three losses. Two blowouts.

2. The bright side out of this is ...

Looking for anything positive about this, the free throw shooting was better. It wasn't great - just 68% - but after hitting just 6-of-18 in the win over Georgia, this was a plus. This should be a 70% free throw shooting team, and yes, this was a positive sign.

And, for what it's worth, Mississippi State hit the glass hard. Florida is one of the best rebounding teams in the nation, and yeah, losing Condon mattered, but this was one of the better games of the SEC season on the boards with 43. This bunch did a great job on the offensive side, but it didn't mean much in the second half run.

1. Now what for Mississippi State basketball?

At 17-7 everything is still fine for the NCAA Tournament, and even at 5-6 in conference play, Mississippi State will get a decent seed in the SEC Tournament. January 7th against Vanderbilt is the last time this team put together a strong game.

It's not just that the team is struggling, it's that it's painfully proving to be not even close against the stars in the SEC. If Mississippi State wanted to show it's among the elite, this game proved that it isn't.

But remember, this is just the preseason.

The SEC Tournament matters. Win a few games in the NCAA Tournament, and this will all be part of the process. But it would be nice to beat Ole Miss next just to prove that the team can bounce back fast.