Game 19 - DePaul vs. Mississippi State @ Tampa, FL; Dec. 10, 2009

GAME - DePaul vs. Mississippi State in Tampa; Thursday, Dec. 12, 2009

LINE - Mississippi State - 12

RESULT - Mississippi State covers easily, winning by 31, 76-45

After a necessary FOUR days off following his Saturday "effort" in Lexington (http://istonygreeneonthetake.blogspot.com/2009/12/game-17-north-carolina-kentucky-dec-5.html), Tony Greene showed up in Tampa, FL, tonight, working the lesser half of the Big East-SEC Showdown match-ups played in Tampa. Drawing the short straw and missing out on the anticipated Florida-Syracuse tilt later in the evening, Tony Greene was forced to sit through the desolate DePaul-Mississippi State match-up, and so were his friends at ITGOTT.

When Things Are Going Your Way, Swallow Your Whistle

Halfway through the first half, ITGOTT hadn't noticed anything egregious by any of tonight's crew, which consisted of Tony Greene, Mike Kitts, and Doug Shows. A questionable charge call on a Mississippi State Bulldog resulted in a DePaul three-pointer, and an additional bizarre rebounding foul on MSU's Kodi Augustus made ITGOTT look at Doug Shows, but he's more of a bad official than an official "on the take."

If Tony Greene was calling anything, ITGOTT missed it in the first half. A Mississippi State run, fueled by 9 first-half three-pointers, was not interrupted by any calls, and a 15-0 run put the Bulldogs up by 19 at the close of the half. The spread was covered 5 minutes before the first half, and MSU never looked back. Tony Greene wasn't going to make any calls to break MSU's momentum, and DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright's repeated time-outs proved futile. FYI - During MSU's 15-0 run, only 2 total fouls were called on either team, and neither were called by Tony Greene.

An easy "and-one" call made by a shockingly out-of-position Tony Greene (ITGOTT had no clue what he was doing in that position when he made the call) with 42 seconds to go in the half allowed MSU to extend its lead to 22, the margin being reduced to 20 at halftime.

(To be fair, this looked like a case of one coach totally out-preparing the other. The underrated Rick Stansbury of MSU totally out-classed DePaul's Jerry Wainwright. Look for Jerry Wainwright to be doing something else other than embarrassing Blue Demon fans next year. In fact, IsTonyGreenOnTheTake boldly predicts that Jerry Wainwright is dismissed before the end of this season.)

Don't Let The Team You Are Not Helping Get Back Into The Game

Following this rule, unbelievably, the first seven personal fouls of the second half were called on DePaul, and Mississippi State was able to extend its 20-point lead to 27, and with 14:21 to go in the game, the Bulldogs were in the bonus while yet to commit their first second-half foul.

It should be noted that this game was SO bad that even Brad Nessler and Jimmy Dykes were having a hard time keeping interested. By the second half, these guys were talking about ANYTHING other than the game, and it was tough to keep watching.

Mississippi State, behind a 9-1 second half foul discrepancy in its favor, extended its lead to 31 with 9 minutes to play, and the rout was on and the spread of 12 was easily in hand.

Mississippi State went on to win 76-45, easily covering the 12-point spread.