SEC Basketball Reaction: Mississippi State UPSETS Tennessee, Georgia Defeats Arkansas, More

Chris Lee, Blake Lovell, and Max Barr share their reaction to Wednesday’s results in SEC basketball with thoughts on every single game.

We highlight performances from Josh Hubbard, Tolu Smith, Zakai Zeigler, Noah Thomasson, Justin Hill, Jamarion Sharp, Jaemyn Brakefield, and more.

0:00 Intro
2:20 Mississippi State 77, #5 Tennessee 72
12:48 Georgia 76, Arkansas 66
22:37 Ole Miss 103, Florida 85

*FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA*

Twitter: https://twitter.com/14Southeastern
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/southeastern14_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@secsports14

*PRESENTED BY BETONLINE*

Head to the BetOnline today to get in on the action. Don’t forget to use Promo Code: BLEAV to receive your 50% Welcome Bonus on your first deposit. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!

*ADVERTISE WITH SOUTHEASTERN 14* 💰

Be the MVP of Southeastern 14 and advertise with us! Reach out to caroline.smith@southeastern14.com to find out how your product or service can be seen by over 150,000 unique viewers each month!

Chris Lee Blake level and Max Bar of South Eastern 14 basketball was cancelled on Wednesday night is the the world stopped spinning in the wake of Nick sabin’s retirement isn’t isn’t that what happened Blake listen here’s what I’ll I’ll say what I told many others the reason Nick

Sav retires he watch more Alabama basketball um you know he figured he’s missing some of those non-conference games and want to get to watch a little bit more um but on hard hat ready to go but I think he also wanted to watch SEC basketball you want to watch the

Resurgence of this conference that’s that’s just the rumors I’m hearing but you know I don’t have the inside information that you and Trey Wallace and others have so I love to John rothstein’s uh Tweet someone asked him hey John what do you think about the Alabama coaching change he goes Nat outs

Didn’t get fired tunnel vision well yeah somebody spent that sent that to me I mean give rth credit he is always on brand um seriously I mean before we we do get into basketball what a night what a morning wake up this morning and Bill bellich is out

In in New England I mean is a footnote Pete Carroll also out in Seattle I mean what a this is the most significant 24 hours for for coaching news in the history of sports I mean it’s just crazy again what’s the common theme they all wanted to watch more basketball they

Did let me tell you it’s worth watching after after what we’ve seen well I wouldn’t say Arkansas fans not gonna say that but um get to them later all right anyways our show is presented by someone it’s presented by B line um where we do talk basketball here

Uh NFL playoffs right around the corner NBA season full swing batt on line has you covered with all the up to the second odds news and scores with additional odds lines Trends and info on both desktop and mobile you can access the world’s best wagering information

Any time head there today to get in the action see all the updated odds remember to use our promo code believe that is bav get your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit bet online where the game starts the game started in Starkville last night where this game

Was almost a tossup coming in I think most of the computers had Tennessee about a one-point Road favorite Mississippi State of course recently got to L Smith back and and boy did he make a difference it was a battle down the stretch guys I I thought zakiah

Ziggler by himself was going to will Tennessee to a win Falls LED that one late Smith three-point play late was the difference Falls or excuse me the Bulldogs get a garbage time Breakaway dunk at the buzzer uh to extend the margin from three to five Tulu Smith had 23 points the aforementioned three-point

Play this is what is shocking to me Blake I know the last 20 years Mississippi state has not been you know certainly a top third program in the league maybe not a top half but it’s had some good teams it’s won the conference a time or two um

Going back a little further it’s been to a final four I think I don’t know if the AP put this out or the SEC network did last night and I’ll find it but I think that was States first win against a top 10 AP ranked team since 2002 I did not realize

It had been that long since State beat a team of that magnitude Blake uh yeah I guess so I didn’t know that either um so yeah you would have thought they would have gotten somebody along the way but uh apparently not but yeah I mean this was here’s here’s what

I think sorry make that top make that top five Not Top 10 but still yeah yeah I could see top five top 10 yeah okay um but here’s what I think all right I think Tennessee and all other SEC teams to this point I think they should go to commissioner Greg

Sanki and request something I think they should request that no team have to play on the road the rest of the season knew that was coming because if you play on the you might as well just you know you gotta play on the road sorry like we appreciate you showing up but you’re

About to get beat now of course I say that half jokingly we all know we were talking about what was the main theme uh last weekend right it was revenge of the away teams like first slate of opening play LSU goes and wins Kentucky goes and

Wins and other ones like that but not in the midweek folks um midweek teams at home Max what’s their record this week at home midweek they only lose one no one lost did they no one lost who am I forgetting Alabama beat South Carolina Kentucky beat Missouri LSU beat

Vanderbilt Auburn beat Texas A&M Mississippi State beats Tennessee Georgia beats Arkansas Old Miss beats Florida yeah midweek home teams go seven and0 so I mean I don’t know like here’s here here’s where we get into the the weeds here all right do we chalk this up are we concerned about

Tennessee um or is this just college basketball because as M I’m gonna I’m give Max the Flor to bring up the stat about why this is such a historic loss not just for Tennessee but for the top five in college basketball but I don’t know man I it’s just a tough

Place to play we all picked Tennessee you knew we were done for when that happened um but I just am I my surprise no like this is this is what happens and I think again Mississippi State we said it they’re a different team with toou Smith they get him back these are the

Kind of games that you get him back for like you get him back for games like this where you know you’re playing a team that you’re going to have to play well but you know everyone’s not going to play well that’s why you need someone

Like him and put him in a position to where he can give you a chance to have success you know both teams turn the ball over quite a bit here um but that’s to be expected when you have two defens into teams like this I mean the way they

Play you expect turnovers and so it just came down to who was going to take advantage of that who was going to take advantage of their opportunities you know scoring wise it winds up being a a two on two game here right where it’s Josh Hub and Smith against Dalton

Connect and zakai Zigler like just but everybody else around them struggled a little bit you know didn’t have their best games um I know Max’s probably going to bring up too the ad situation foul trouble like those all those kind of things factor in when you have a game

Like this that’s on the road in conference play and it just so happened that you know Mississippi State put themselves in a better position than Tennessee did they made the plays down the stretch and found a way to get a huge win here because as we said we

Looked at Mississippi State schedule we said boy this feels like a not a must-win but like this is a very important game based on the upcoming schedule in the first half of the schedule for this team yeah first off I want to start with this

Game right here is is why I love college basketball this is what it’s all about did you see Chris Jans in that Locker Room Post game I mean the the the passion the you can tell how much it meant to the team how hard they fought

It’s just this is what it’s all about I love this stuff and this is coming from someone who had a small wager on on Tennessee I this is what I live for so Blake you mentioned the stat John Fanta the great John Fanta uh tweeted this out

Last night this is the first time in the history of the sport of college basketball that four of the top five teams have lost in a in a two-day span first time ever in history of the sport guys we are living through we are witnessing the most parody in college

Basketball that there has ever been in the history of the sport it’s it’s un it’s I’m just I’m honored to to be able to talk about it this is unreal like I’m shaken with with how much this how crazy Max Bar all in Max Bar is all in

Tennessee fans he’s all in on you losing that’s what he’s saying he’s all in on you losing this game not exactly I’m just I I can’t believe how crazy this season has been it’s in it’s only January you know um when when you look at the game I think both teams have

Stuff that they can take away as positives and negatives um you’re looking at you’re looking at one of the best freshman in in the country here in Josh hubber just not getting enough credit unbelievable shooter and the the way that he gets his shot off how high

He can get on his jump shot it’s just it’s impressive and then you you add five steals from DJ Jeff Jeff one of the best on ball Defenders the conference has to offer and finally here we go tolu Smith back and better than ever um Mississippi state’s going to have to do

Some work on Breaking the Press you know that that’s how Tennessee got back into the game and Chris Jan said it in his in his postgame presser said we’re going to have to work on that as for for Tennessee uh I I said it in the preview

I said Adu has to work on his physicality and positioning and Rick Barnes said it in in his postgame he said no one should be able to back us down the way they just bullied us and backed us down um I do think that some of the Interior file calls down the

Stretch were a little bit questionable but hey that’s college basketball you’re going to get that on the road right so little bit concerning with with Tennessee’s lack of you know inconsistency with Josiah Jordan James and besy and stuff I would like for them to be more consistent and so with Rick

Farns um and then for Mississippi State now we’re going to see teams pressing pressing the heck out of them all game right trying to force turnover so both teams with some positives and some negatives but man I am just beaming with with how how crazy these games have

Been yeah Max you you hit on a lot of my thoughts I think this is one of those years I mean look I don’t think we really know who’s got what with with a lot of certainty until until mid-February is when I start really making firm judgments on teams and even

Even then sometimes a team is kind of running away with it and then they’ll show some cracks late February early March and those are the things we should pay attention to so even then it’s but I mean I think we start finding out mid-February who’s who’s in the

Discussion of being good so we got a long way to go um that that said this this feels like the year that somebody’s great-grandmother is going to win your bracket pool if it’s ever happened um let’s look at the Carnage across college basketball last night for ranked teams we have

Tennessee we had TCU beating Oklahoma I think that one was in Fort Worth it was we had Butler which is decent team knocking off Marquette at Marette at Marquette we had uh Virginia Tech beating Clemson um which was was in blackburg so not a not

A shock but I was listening to the field of 68 this morning and I can’t remember the stat if it was across all of college basketball or if it was power five but I think home teams are winning games maybe in conference play at a 66% clip which

Was up from 61 a year ago is that something that falls apart later or something that’s going to hold I I don’t know I mean we we just went through this whole thing of hey there was Carnage at home over the weekend and and midweek everybody at home hold sered

So I don’t know where this is headed but I feel like it’s going to be unpredictable and it’s going to be fun um final thought here on on Mississippi State Tennessee what do we what do we think of the banana people getting arrested and hauled

Off did you see that yeah I did Brandon Walker was having a lot of fun on Twitter with that um listen I mean start Ville was was incredible last night that atmosphere was was nuts I think that was one of the best crowds they’ve ever had

Uh it’s just expect this now from now on you know buckle up because that’s how it’s going to be here in SEC play moving forward next up let’s see who was next up Max oh gosh a tough one is next up yeah um were we going to go Chris it’s on the

Screen oh okay well there we go George Arkansas you you really forced Arkansas fans to sit here and just wait and they thought you were probably mocking them at that point wow Arkansas fans Chris Max all in on Tennessee losing Chris mocking Arkansas this is just I’m I’m

Gonna sit back here and just get these two in check okay because these two are out of control here um we are going to Georgia Arkansas go ahead Chris I’ll let you do the intro on this one but this is my about multitasking you made Arkansas fans wait

A full 10 seconds as the score is sitting on the screen I I got nothing here and did did it ever Max did ever feel like Arkansas was gonna win this game a little bit a little bit down there and they they came out the second half you know really fighting it’s

Just like the previous games here with Arkansas it’s you need an insane individual performance like you know Tran Mark starts starts making some shots and then every offensive possession is just Tran mark one ball screen Tran Mark isolation there’s no motion offense um Jackson klier on on

Twitter is a good follow for for Arkansas fans he was asking he was asking the fans at halftime you know what are your thoughts and those comments were just brutal uh I think you got to understand here though that Georgia is this is just not the same

Georgia team as we’ve seen in years past and Blake has I’m sure Blake will will touch on that a little bit but you know Eric muselman said in his postgame we’re not defending like we have the past three years and if you’re not doing that you have to have the offense help and

It’s it’s not at all so the you can name off a list of things Arkansas’s got to work on ball screen defense motion offense all this different stuff strength in the interior post um but I think right now you just gota coming out of this game you have to tip your cap to

Noah Thomasson and Justin Hill the the point guard Duo that they have there is is great they found a way to win with Abdul rahee only making one three um so I mean gez this I I I’ll watch this game back for sure I caught I didn’t catch

The whole thing bits and pieces um was watching Miss in Florida and this one at same time with two eyeballs going different ways but uh Noah Thomas is a Difference Maker for this team for sure um it’s a different team now yeah I mean I don’t know what else to say about

Where Arkansas’s at right now I mean it’s tough to say much right now Blake Arkansas fans have have watched and not many are watching anymore um you know we talk about them here and it’s just there’s just not a lot to to add that we haven’t already said um like I said it’s

You know we made our predictions it’s just how could I think Arkansas was gonna wi they never led the game not a single time right and so it’s how how could I think that they were going to come in here and beat a Georgia team

That is playing as well as they have and years I think you could make the argument like literally years they they not played this well um and so yeah so I mean I don’t I don’t want to focus too much on Arkansas here because I think it’s this should be way

More about Georgia even though I know in the grand scheme of things Arkansas fans are unhappy and I get it and understand all of that but I mean like I said I mean I I do I think back to the conversation Chris and I probably had

When Mike White got hired and I’m just going to say the same thing I said then like it was the perfect fit it was just what the Georgia basketball program needed at that time and I know we’re only two games in the conference play but this is different like this is a

Different feel for this program um than what we’ve had in in quite a while I know Mark Fox had some good teams there there was good talent whether it’s you know JJ Frasier yonay maon all those guys but man like this team right now like they they’ve got a a Groove they’ve

Got the momentum um and they’re taking advantage of their opportunity because again you talk about a Missouri team that’s been struggling and Arkansas Team that’s been struggling like we said you know it’s just the nature of college basketball where sometimes maybe you go on the road and play a Missouri team who

Just manages to get the win even though they’ve struggled to this point or maybe you play an Arkansas Team who’s absolutely desperate but yeah Georgia’s able to with you know hold both of those teams off and pick up two great wins I mean I’m calling them great wins because

Is like where the Georgia program has been these are great wins to start off SEC play at two and 0 um and now a huge opportunity on Saturday against Tennessee which we talk about so yeah I mean I think it’s just man it is there’s not enough good things I can say about

The Georgia basketball program right now um and like you said it’s it’s a variety of guys the addition of Thomas like there’s just there’s so many things you you could point at um and it’s hard to just kind of look at it within this game because you know the story of this game

I just want to I want to point this out too it kind of ties into the first two games here um you know we all talked about the improved three-point shooting in the SEC right that was the whole talk of non-conference play well guess what the SEC has settled right back in where

It usually is when it comes to three-point shooting among conferences and right now is shooting a crisp 29.9% from three through the first two set of conference games which is 31st out of 32 conferences so that’s about what you expect in this league like we see teams

I said it Max you’re going to see teams shoot it well in the noncon you’re going to see offenses find their Rhythm but boy when they get an SEC play and you start playing some of these teams that have a little bit more length on the perimeter um you know force you

To take worse shots like it’s just it’s gonna happen and so far we’ve seen a lot of teams struggle from the perimeter and that was kind of the case here for these two teams but yeah Georgia with the win 10 straight and Arkansas I don’t know cuz I mean their

Upcoming schedule they’re at Florida you talk about two teams in desperation mode at Florida on Saturday it’s about to turn into a you know loser leaves town cage match here um because somebody’s going to 0 and3 in the SEC and not gonna be very pleased at that so yeah there we

Are I watched Georgia I don’t know that it’s a team with stars certainly not Superstars but it’s a team that’s got eight or nine quality players this feels to me like it’s it’s an nit season um just with the depth of the league I think getting the NCA tournament is

Going to be hard but I mean they they’ve banked a lot of wins already okay we can we can have well look we just went through this whole spill of college basketball is unpredictable who knows I I wouldn’t take it off the table but that feels

Like the most likely outcome to me is we’re sitting here doing this mid January but Blake I watched that game last night I remember having a vague recollection maybe seven eight years ago about somebody writing something in the the AJC because we go to the SEC tournament when it’s in our

Backyard every year and and Georgia just brings nobody um and I remember somebody writing Georgia fans almost have a a pride about how disinterested they are in basketball I watched that place last night the tenant was announced at I think nearly 8,000 and I would have

Liked to seen a pan to the whole Arena maybe they did that when I wasn’t watching but it felt like that place last night was pretty inter IED and into it and and if you can do that in year two Georgia I think you’re you’re getting some places well yeah I don’t

Blame Georgia fans for not you know coming to the tournament over the past little while because there’s only been one SEC team since 2016 that’s not made the tournament this Georgia so I mean so I don’t blame them I mean they have been the outlier and again we

Talked about we know Vader bolt kind of hit rock bottom while back there Georgia’s hit rock bottom two years ago we hadn’t seen teams bottom out the way that those two programs did um we haven’t seen that often in sec in the secc like just historically you look at

Teams like there have been some bad teams but like I don’t know that we saw the depth of kind of those two like even what was it six and 26 yeah I mean like even going back to last year like South Carolina we thought but South Carolina

Won 11 games right they won four SEC games like LSU won 14 games last year despite only wi two in the SEC but like you’re talking about a different level when you’re six and 26 and one and 17 in the league and again we go back to some

Of those Vanderbilt teams that were really struggling obviously the team that went 0 and 18 and all that um we just hadn’t seen that a whole lot in the SEC I mean maybe Missouri like 2017 that’s the year they won eight games I think two in the SEC but yeah I’m pretty

Sure that stat is still I did that stat a couple years ago but it’s I’m pretty sure it’s held up since then is that georg’s you know the only team that hasn’t made it since 2016 so that that shows you the depth of the league too by

The way that’s that’s not that long ago and yet every team has made the tournament since then except for Georgia so yeah this is the again I just this was what Mike White needed he needed to get away from the pressure of the Florida job reset he’s a good coach and

I think this was a better position for him after all the pressure that came with following Billy Donovan at Florida and knowing the expectations were if you’re not winning back to national championships it seems like a disappointment and so this was perfect and I’m glad that they’re having

Success all right Blake you you referenced the League’s miserable shooting well one team could shoot last night this team shot 59% from the field 40% from three 85% from the free throw line and that wasn’t even the most impressive part of the game Jan sharp playing seven 17

Minutes blocks nine shots which I think was Max I believe you told us in Texas last night have not fact checked this a School record yep all Miss record my my goodness Old Miss last night L Lord have mercy on your soul if you ran into that buz buzz Saul and

Oxford that atmosphere was was incredible I mean I think we’re starting to see just like you know these schools you see you saw it with Georgia and now you’re seeing it with with old miss you saw it with with Florida in their first home game these you know opening SEC

Play home games the the atmospheres have just been unbelievable um I think you gotta mention Jam braefield in his stretch of I mean I would say a tear an offensive tear that he’s been on um and if you watched ol Miss in those first few games uh you when they didn’t have

The the transfers like the Eastern Washington the Detroit Mercy Sam Houston State breakfield did not look like he was playing confident looked looked like he was a little bit hesitant and I was talking with uh Tim Thomas uh who does some some good stuff with all miss and

We were just shocked by the confidence that Jamon braefield is playing with it’s night and day difference from how he was playing uh in the beginning of the Season uh as far as as Florida’s concerned Todd golden came out and said our defensive effort was atrocious just atrocious um and I mean

What you know what do you want to take away from that uh you know they they they battled in the first half a little bit but coming out in that second half just just kind of fell asleep there I’m scratching my head on on Riley cougle’s minutes uh golden was asked about his

Minutes and he said uh quote I didn’t think cougal had it tonight um so you know I’m not really sure what the minutes going forward for koug are going to look like if he’s getting four minutes a game or single digit minutes a game that that really changes the

Outlook of this team um you saw how important he was for keeping uh Florida in the game against Tennessee or against Kentucky so I mean you’re gonna need you’re gonna need Riley cougal down the stretch um but like you said uh Blake you don’t you

Don’t want to fall to to 0 and three and I don’t think you can fix all the defensive errors in what is it four three to four days but I think you can fix the effort and uh and and playing at home with your back against the wall uh

I’m really looking forward to seeing this Florida team bounce back with with Just Just A Better Effort in fighting and wanting it because they just didn’t seem like they wanted it there in that second half yeah I mean I I said I could certainly see The Hangover effect after

The Kentucky game because this was not an easy spot because I think you just look at it and like I mentioned I think this was a great the Tennessee game was just the perfect opportunity for Chris beard to go in and say here you go you guys thought you were something at 13

And0 here’s what it takes like you need to be able to play a game like this like the one Tennessee played in Knoxville um and Old Miss came back and responded and I just think I had more confidence in Old Miss doing that than I did Florida

Um for whatever reason I just I think it’s the proven success that Chris beard has had and you look back kind of over the years you know yes there’s been points like every coach where they’ve had losing streaks on the teams but he seemed to do a pretty good job of kind

Of getting his guys back up after a loss and um you know yeah I mean I just I think this was one where whether it’s you know a guy setting a record for Block shots whether it’s just all the contributions you’re getting from these different guys I mean I I think this was

The perfect game for for the point that I think Max and I may have made this summer but we said you know when we were everybody was kind of you know having their fun with us and we were like oh yeah we could go all in on Old Miss at

Number three if if they have that one through seven that we were so high on we said the one through seven I would feel really good if I’m old Miss about putting my one through seven and remember this was before you know we knew maybe who was going to emerge

Whether it was you know different guys playing different roles but we we’ kind of figured hey maybe you replace this guy with that guy but one through seven if you looked at the roster and they had Brandon Murray they had M he’s like hey you could you could see it and

So I you know the Tennessee loss I based on everything we talked about I’m going to chalk up to going on the road life in the SEC maybe maybe Florida fans feel the same way about this I don’t know that’s the case I think Florida fans are probably a little disappointed right now

Knowing that they felt like they should have beat Kentucky you go on the road and you kind of have a performance like this where defensively again you just not a lot goes your way and they’re also a team just doesn’t force a lot of turn turnovers and I think that’s something

Where like we’ve said for Missouri in the past right like other teams like that they may have weaknesses defensively but they were able to force more turn more turnovers and get easier shots I don’t have a lot of doubt about Florida offensively like I think they’re

Going to be fine but the defense yeah still a lot to be determined there and we’ll see um like I said boy you want to talk about a game that we didn’t quite think would be the setup that it is on Saturday when they host Arkansas um man

Somebody somebody’s going to come out of there uh kind of exhale a little bit somebody else is going to come out of there thinking oh boy like we we got some serious issues even though you know these fan bases may already think that but I don’t know I mean again do we

Chalk this up just as one of those games for Florida after a tough loss to Kentucky maybe but I think the Arkansas game will tell us more than maybe this one did uh parting thoughts while Oreo loses his mind here I’ve had it on for

Reason I think he does well look I just again we we’re gonna we’re going to preview all the Saturday games as usual we’ve also got the mailback coming up so you guys can leave your comments or questions for the mailbag do that on Twitter though go to1 14s Eastern um

Send us your questions we’ll have Friday’s mailbag coming up so do that and uh yeah we will talk more SEC basketball heading into the weekend games all I have to say is appreciate what we are witnessing right now because it has never happened in the sport ever before we’re witnessing history baby let’s

Go yeah I’m I’m with you guys I I think I think night in night out in the SEC you’re you’re going to see more interesting matchups across the conference schedule yep and across major college basketball than than we’ve seen in a long time time that that could be a

Dumb take that a month from now we say hey that was stupid Auburn or Tennessee or Kentucky ran away with it if you’re playing them on most nights you didn’t have a chance maybe that’s how it pans out but as we sit here in mid-march doesn’t feel like it’s going

To play out that way based on what we’re seeing early in conference play not just in the league but across the country all right this has been Southeastern 14 presented by bet online we’ll see you again soon with SEC basketball prediction s