KNOXVILLE — Whenever his days as a college basketball coach are over, Donnie Tyndall has a future as a television analyst for the sport.
Mississippi State made Tennessee’s first-year coach look pretty smart Tuesday night.
A day after Tyndall called them the Southeastern Conference’s most improved team since the start of league play last month, the Bulldogs overcame a career-high scoring night from Josh Richardson to beat the Volunteers 71-66 at Thompson-Boling Arena. It was Tennessee’s third home conference loss in five games.
“Coach told us they were probably the most improved team from the beginning of the season up until now, so we knew we would get their best shot,” Vols guard Kevin Punter said after scoring 10 points.
“Those guys came out and made some pretty good plays. They hit a few early, and just like any scorer, once they hit a couple shots early, then they start feeling it. Those guys started feeling it, and toward the end of the game they started making some key baskets.”
Tyndall was clearly more disappointed that Tennessee (13-8, 5-4) allowed Mississippi State to shoot 56 percent overall and 8-of-11 from 3-point range than he was in his team’s offensive struggles.
“Our defense certainly wasn’t what it needed to be,” Tyndall said, “but you’ve got to give Mississippi State credit. I thought they played very efficiently at the offensive end.
“Our team’s margin of error is so, so small,” he added, “if we don’t have the right mentality and we’re not on razor’s edge, there’s no one in our league we can beat. That’s just where it is. Our guys didn’t have the edge at the defensive end, in my opinion, tonight, and give Mississippi State credit.”
The Bulldogs (11-11, 4-5), coming off an upset of LSU at the weekend, needed 26 points from guard Craig Sword and 20 off the bench from Fred Thomas to offset Richardson’s career game.
The senior scored 30 points to surpass his career high of 26 set against Mercer in the NCAA tournament last season. He was the first Tennessee player to crack the 30-point mark since Jordan McRae scored 31 at Missouri last February.
“I was just attacking, and my shot felt good, but I would’ve liked to win more,” he said after shooting 11-of-19 from the field and making all six of his free throws.
Richardson hit a 3 — the Vols were only 5-of-20 from long range — to give Tennessee a 41-40 lead, but the Bulldogs restored their lead after Sword hits two treys and Thomas added a third.
With Tennessee down by seven, Richardson scored 10 in a row at one point, but the Vols couldn’t get enough stops.
“When you let guys like Fred get their head up, or Craig Sword get their head up, it’s going to be a tough night,” Richardson said.
“We let them get hot early, and they did a job of keeping attacking.”
Tennessee could have tied the game with about a minute left, but Derek Reese missed a dunk off the back of the rim. Thomas corralled the long rebound, raced down the floor and converted a three-point play to give the Bulldogs a 66-61 lead with 51.9 seconds left.
“It hurt,” Punter said. “I don’t know about turning point. For us, we were still trying to chip away at it, chip away at it. We’ve just got to keep pushing and keep moving along and figure out a way to win the game.”
The Vols had 26 more shots than the Bulldogs thanks to 20 offensive rebounds and held a 26-12 advantage in scoring in the paint, but MSU hit more free throws (25) than Tennessee attempted (17).
“I don’t know if we’ve ever lost a game like that with those types of discrepancies in those two areas,” Tyndall said.
Mississippi State, which snapped a 22-game road losing streak at Auburn on Jan. 21, won just three SEC games last season, but Rick Ray’s team already has surpassed that mark this season.
In a 61-47 loss to Tennessee in the SEC opener for both teams, the Bulldogs made only 11 shots, missed 20 free throws and hit only one of nine 3-point attempts.
By halftime Tuesday, MSU, which entered the game third in the SEC in 3-point shooting in SEC play, made 12 shots, and Sword and Thomas each hit four 3s.
“I said before the game Mississippi State was the most improved team in our league,” Tyndall said, “and I think everyone saw that that’s probably the case tonight.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.