Auburn Kicks MSU Right In The Brackets

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Mississippi State fans hoping for an at-large bid to the NCAA tourney knew that the Bulldogs desperately needed to beat Tennessee in Starkville on Saturday.

With an RPI of just 55 and four bad losses to teams outside the Top 100 in RPI, State had just one last shot in the regular season to knock off a high-ranking foe.

After last night’s 89-80 loss at Auburn, I’m not sure how much that game with Tennessee is going to mean.

State’s RPI will surely drop further with their loss to the Tigers… a loss that is now MSU’s fifth to a team outside the RPI Top 100.

In an ordinary year, that would mean certain elimination from at-large bid consideration.  This year, thanks to a lack of quality teams out West, the Dogs still might be alive.  Barely.  As in “must beat Tennessee and then win two or three in the SEC tournament” alive.

Dee Bost said after the game, “We knew we couldn’t lose this game to get into the tournament, so this is a big loss on the resume.”

The win was special for the Tigers a) because they dealt a serious blow to the West Division champs and b) they were closing down Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Tay Waller hit on 6-of-11 three-pointers leading Auburn’s six seniors.  “We came out with a different mentality.  We saw all of the people here and we didn’t want anyone to go home sad.  We felt like we had to fight for all the players of Auburn’s past.”

Brendon Knox added, “We didn’t play the whole season like we wanted to, but it was great to finish like this.  To send off the coliseum like this felt real good.”

Mike Svetitz of The Opelika-Auburn News provides a fitting final eulogy for Beard-Eaves in this piece.

The game was not only the final home regular season game for Auburn’s seniors, but it might have been the final home game for head coach Jeff Lebo, too.

The Tigers are just 15-15, 6-9 in the SEC.  Perhaps the Tigers can earn an NIT bid, but that looks doubtful at this point.  So now that the old arena is padlocked, the remaining questions is this: Will Lebo be there to open the new arena next year?

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