Oklahoma Torches Mississippi State From Deep: 5 Key Takeaways From Bulldogs' Loss to Sooners

Oklahoma 93, Mississippi State 87

5. Mississippi State's Defense Had a Long Day

Mississippi State is now 0-6 on the season when allowing more than 84 points, and 2-7 when allowing 80 points. It’s 17-1 when allowing fewer than 80 points.

How bad was this? Oklahoma got to 90 against three other teams - Alcorn State, Lindenwood, and Vanderbilt. The team only got past 70 points twice in the previous seven games.

Oklahoma was hitting its shots. It was on from three, it finally closed a game with a W, and Mississippi State didn’t do enough to change any of that. There were too many points allowed inside, the D allowed 53% from the field, and …

4. Mississippi State Has to Figure Out How to Win When the Three-Point Defense Isn’t There

Again, the Bulldog defense wasn’t anything great, but that means the offense has to figure out some way to keep up. That might mean going inside more - Josh Hubbard kept driving, but the Bulldogs were off overall - and this is where that three point D matters.

Oklahoma hit 11 from beyond the arc, and now Mississippi State is 2-8 when the other side hits double-digit threes - and one of the wins was in overtime against Ole Miss.

Big picture, the threes will be raining in the SEC Tournament, and the NCAA Tournament could be an instant out if some Directional State Tech school goes off from the outside. The Bulldogs have to find some way to keep up, especially in games like this when …

Dayton dialin' from deep ☎️ pic.twitter.com/vH5hvxMWBb
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) February 22, 2025

3. Mississippi State Struggled to Find Its Rhythm

The bounce wasn’t there like it was in the wins over Ole Miss and Texas A&M. To be fair, Oklahoma desperately needed this win, and it played like it. At home on a Saturday afternoon, and with NCAA Tournament dreams starting to disappear, the Sooners showed up large with one of its best efforts in a long, long time.

But the Bulldogs weren’t flying around defensively until it was a bit too late, there weren’t enough turnovers forced after coming up with 40 over the previous two games, and it wasn’t quite the performance the team needed to have over the first 35ish minutes or so, but …

CLAUDELL FROM THE CORNER. THREE POINT GAME!#HailState🐶 | 📺 SECN pic.twitter.com/B2Lyv3Vdgj
— Mississippi State Men's Basketball (@HailStateMBK) February 22, 2025

2. Mississippi State Dominated the Offensive Glass

It wasn’t necessarily a lackluster effort - it just wasn’t the type of game the team showed was possible in the two great wins to turn around the season.

Mississippi State might not have been shooting well, and it had a hard time finding any sort of a groove to kickstart the scoring, but it did what it could be being ultra-active on the offensive boards with a whopping 20 to overcome the struggles from the field.

The other plus? The free throws. After hitting 17-of-20 against Texas A&M, the Bulldogs stayed strong hitting 19-of-22 in this, and now …

1. Mississippi State's Loss to Oklahoma Is Fine, But …

Mississippi State is going to the NCAA Tournament. All that matters is what happens in that first weekend in the middle of the March fun, all of this is just exhibition now, but …

Again, the team has to learn how to win when it’s giving up lots of points, it has to always clamp down from three, and it can’t come with a B+ energy effort and expect to have nice things.

And now there’s a problem. At Alabama.

The Mississippi State defense has to come up with an otherworldly effort to keep that attack from going off or else all the fun from the two-game winning streak over Ole Miss and Texas A&M starts to wane.

Just making tournaments isn’t enough for this Bulldog team. It has to show over the final four games that the team might have the mettle to be playing in late March.