Mississippi State Basketball: Not the Worst Team in SEC History

The Mississippi State men's basketball team failed to win 10 games in the regular season for the first time since the 1986-87 season. 

The Bulldogs have been referred to as possibly the worst team in SEC history, such as in Brendan Prunty's article in The Star-Ledger.

To make matters worse, Mississippi State's active roster has been reduced to six scholarship players. Most recently, per Brandon Marcello's report in The Clarion-Ledger, Jalen Steele tore his ACL against South Carolina.

Yet despite the setbacks, Mississippi State—led by Colin Borchert and Craig Sword—beat Auburn in overtime in the final game of the regular season. Tonight's victory moved the Bulldogs—with a record of 4-14 in the SEC—ahead of Auburn—who fell to 3-15 in the SEC—in the conference standings. 

After the game, first-year coach Rick Ray tweeted a response to the notion that the Bulldogs were the worst team in SEC history.

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Food for thought. It's kind of hard to be the worst team EVER in SEC history when you don't even finish last this season. Just saying.

— Rick Ray (@RickRay1) March 10, 2013

 

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And while many Bulldog fans want to grade last year's decision to hire Rick Ray, nothing about the new coach can be said with any certainty. Ray inherited a team with only one returning starter and lost numerous players throughout the season to injury.

Fans will have to wait until next season before they can even begin to come to any realistic conclusions on Rick Ray.

Mississippi State will play South Carolina in the SEC men's basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 13, at 7:30 p.m. ET. The full tournament schedule can be found here.