Mississippi State’s Defense Collapses Again: 5 Thoughts on the Bulldogs’ Loss to Arkansas

5 Key Takeaways from Mississippi State’s 93-92 Loss to Arkansas

5. Mississippi State’s defense has gone bye-bye

The defensive intensity is there in spurts.

The Bulldogs did a great job over the last ten minutes to get back in the game, but that’s after the D took a nap to let Arkansas take over.

But this is now a massive problem. This makes it ten of the last 16 games when the D couldn’t keep a team to under 80 points, and it lost nine of them.

The Hogs aren’t great from three, but they hit 43% and overall was 55% from the field. That makes it three of the last five games that Mississippi State allow a team to hit half of their shots, and now …

ARKANSAS GETS THE HUGE WIN OVER NO. 25 MISSISSIPPI STATE 🔥 @RazorbackMBB finishes the regular season with a BANG! pic.twitter.com/Ij4xC7dV9b
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 8, 2025

4. The really, really awful Mississippi State streak continues

Mississippi State 98, Wofford 87 on December 12, 2019. That’s the last time Mississippi State won a game when allowing more than 84 points.

Since then, the program has gone 0-21 when the defense allowed more than 84. That’s a problem because …

3. This Mississippi State team couldn’t close a front door

It’s one thing to suffer a slew of heartbreaking close losses. It’s another to not know how to win.

The Bulldogs could’ve and should’ve won this. Arkansas handed it to them. Did Josh Hubbard have the ball in his hands on the final possession? No.

Did they come up with an easy shot in translation? Arkansas didn’t let that happen. Riley Kugel missed the shot, RJ Melendez had the chance to win it, and he missed the easy five-footer.

To be fair, they came through to hang on in a win over Georgia, and they beat Ole Miss and South Carolina in overtime, but they couldn’t pull off a W in the last game against Texas, couldn’t hang in the first meeting against Alabama, and couldn’t win at Oklahoma when the chances were there. And now …

2. Mississippi State has GOT to come up with something strong in the SEC Tournament

There’s no problem getting into the NCAA Tournament, but with a win over Arkansas a 5-seed was in play.

Now it’ll be fortunate to be out of the 8-9 mix after losing four of its last five games. If it comes into the NCAAs losing five of six - with the only win coming over a bad LSU team, that’s a problem.

In a strange way, though …

THE ANSWER https://t.co/g8JLheddZw pic.twitter.com/ET6iddbMoE
— Mississippi State Men's Basketball (@HailStateMBK) March 8, 2025

1. This was the offensive performance Mississippi State needs going forward

It went dark in the second half for too long and had to rally back, but there was balance throughout as the team picked up the slack for a struggling Josh Hubbard.

The main man hit a massive three late, but he struggled to get to 17 points on 3-of-11 shooting. But six Bulldogs finished with double-digits, the offense spread the ball around well, and it’s what they’ll need to do to keep up the pace with the high-octane teams in the SEC Tournament and in the NCAAs.

If the defense is going to keep being this bad, the offense will have to figure it out.