Wait, People In Mississippi Are Racist?
By Robert Ferringo
There are two reasons that Mississippi State wasn’t a huge play for me:
1) I wanted a number closer to what UK was laying at South Carolina. That number was UK -7 and the Wildcats lost outright. I knew it wouldn’t be there. I figured the line would open at 4.0 and bet bet up around 4.5. I was hoping for 5.0 or 5.5 and then would have made a major move. Instead, it was a 3.5 open, bet down by sharps to 2.5, and bought back by the public (to the tune of 85 percent action on the Cats) up to its present 3.5.
2) This story here about Mississippi State fans getting ahold of DeMarcus Cousins’ cell pone and sending him racist phone and text messages. Now, see, that’s just bad karma. And besides that it serves another important purpose - which will hurt Mississippi State fans and backers. I’m sure it pissed the Wildcats off. The main thing that the Bulldogs had going for them in this game is that it was a letdown spot from the huge Tennessee game and a look ahead spot to a critical matchup with Vanderbilt later this week. But now that MSU fans have gone all “Ghosts of Mississippi” on Cousins you know that Coach Cal and the rest of the team are going to rally around him. This game went from being an afterthought and a potential trap to a game in which the Wildcats will be out for blood. (Forget the fact that Kentucky is full of racists and that those attitudes, in part, led to them running Tubby Smith out.)
At least, that’s the way I see it. Idiot fans have now put their Bulldogs straight in the crosshairs. Maybe Mississippi State will step up, maybe they won’t. Maybe the Wildcats will come out flat, maybe they won’t. But with all of this media attention and with the personal nature of the insults and issues I think that MSU squandered the element of surprise, which was their biggest advantage.
Now, the fact remains that Kentucky hasn’t done dick on the road this year. They have only played five games in opposing gyms this year. They played at Indiana, which is one of the worst teams in the Big 10. They also played at LSU and Auburn, which are the two worst teams in the SEC. And they played at Florida (NIT team) and at South Carolina (NIT team which UK lost to). So this Wildcats team isn’t exactly battle tested. Mississippi State is going to be lively and will be an atmosphere closer to what UK saw in Columbia.
Hopefully the SEC refs - who are the worst of all of the BCS officiating crews; they are notorious “homers” and/or refs that bob on the knob of favorites - will, well, be themselves. And hopefully they give the Bulldogs the same type of slanted homer officiating that the Wildcats have benefitted from all season. But regardless, some stupid off-the-court stuff could jeopardize a huge upset opportunity and a win that would lock up an NCAA invite for Mississippi State.
