Kermit Davis says Mississippi State was tougher than Ole Miss down the stretch

At the end of the Ole Miss–Mississippi State basketball game on Saturday, Kermit Davis watched the game slip away from his team in the second half. This gave the Bulldogs a much needed win and put the Rebels under even more pressure than they had been already.

After the game, Davis admitted that Mississippi State was actually tougher than Ole Miss down the stretch.

“Give Mississippi State a lot of credit,” Kermit Davis said. “It hurts my soul to say it, but they absolutely out-toughed us the last 12 minutes. Got every 50/50 ball. Beat us on offensive rebounds off the free throws. Just careless turnovers at the end.”

With the loss, Ole Miss fell to 8-7 on the season while Mississippi State moved to 12-3. It was a huge win for the Bulldogs, who had lost back-to-back conference games.

“Give them credit, we were up seven with 12 to go and it was like we couldn’t get to a media timeout and they played right through it, through fatigue. Seemed like we got tired and just flipped the game in a three or four-minute period. We come and have a wide open layup to cut it to two, and instead of making a physical layup, we kind of try to avoid contact. But, give them credit. I just thought their team the last 12 minutes out-toughed our team and that was all there was to it.”

Next up for Ole Miss is going to be a difficult game against Auburn. Meanwhile, Mississippi State travels to Georgia.

“They beat us to 50/50 balls,” Davis emphasized. “They out-rebounded us. Every hustle play they made, and that’s just the difference in a rivalry game and it’s too bad for our team that that showed up today.”

Kermit Davis called for the NCAA Tournament to expand

There has been talk about expanding the NCAA Tournament to 90 teams since the transformation committee recommended potentially expanding postseason tournaments by as much as 25%. There are mixed feelings about this, but one person in favor of it is Kermit Davis.

“Every time they’ve expanded playoffs, whether it’s Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, college football to 12, it just makes it better. Every time they do it it makes it better. There’s a lot of really, really good teams. And I think it’ll give a lot, probably, more Power 5 schools opportunities,” Davis said.

“So there’s a lot of Power 5 teams that can go and get in these tournaments and win two and three games. And I think that’s really what it’s for. … and I think it’s going to be great for the fans, great for the players, and I think it would be really good for the NCAA Tournament.”