Five observations following Georgia's loss to Mississippi State

Here are five observations following Georgia's 72-57 loss to Mississippi State.

No help

It has been a simple formula for Georgia (13-9, 4-5 SEC). When Yante Maten gets help, Georgia flourishes. When he doesn't, Georgia is in trouble.

Saturday's game against Mississippi State marked one of those trouble days. With no one else contributing much on offense, Maten saw frequent double and triple teams down low. On top of that, Mississippi State (17-6, 5-5) did a good job of limiting passing lanes and pressuring the Georgia guards.

Nothing came easy and it was easy to see why Mississippi State was able to run away with a victory.

For as great as Maten, who was held to 13 points, has been throughout his career, Georgia's issues don't come when he is unable to score at will. The problems emerge when the guards struggle. And against guard-oriented teams, Georgia hasn't been too effective this season. Mississippi State pressured the perimeter and disrupted Georgia from getting into any sort of flow on offense.

Look for Georgia's upcoming opponents to do more of the same, since that appears to be the blueprint to defeat this team.

Rebounding blowout

In addition to the final score being a blowout, Mississippi State absolutely owned Georgia when it came to rebounding the basketball.

And that as quite the surprise considering that rebounding has been a strength of Georgia's. But Georgia was out-rebounded by a final total of 37-20. Mississippi State did a fine job coming up with offensive rebounds, as it brought down 12. That allowed Mississippi State to come up with 13 second-chance points.

Georgia had no answer inside and allowed Mississippi State to control the paint. That has been a rarity to see this season, and one area Georgia surely didn't see coming entering Saturday's game.

Peters roasts Georgia

Mississippi State guard Lamar Peters entered Saturday averaging 7.5 points per game.

He ended Saturday's win over Georgia with one of the best games of his career. Peters finished with a game-high 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting. He routinely took Georgia's guards off the dribble and got to the hoop fairly easily in man-to-man situations. Peters didn't shoot the 3-pointer all too great but still hit two key long-range jumpers.

Peters has been heating up lately but maybe wasn't someone Georgia thought would light it up. But once Peters got going, Georgia didn't do enough to contain him. Peters was hot from start to finish, with Georgia unable to cool him down.

Crump starts, Harris suspended, Hightower sits, Diatta contributes

This is a development to watch moving forward.

Tyree Crump earned his second start of his career and his first of the 2017-18 season. Crump ended the game scoring 13 points and probably stated his case for even more playing time, more so due to his offensive capability. No one else, other than Maten, can offer Georgia such quick scoring potential.

While Crump started, it was announced before the game that guard Jordan Harris has been indefinitely suspended. No other information about the suspension has been revealed. But with Harris out, it would have been assumed that guard Teshaun Hightower would get some playing time.

Instead, Hightower sat the entire game on the bench. And that's been a crazy turn of events, considering Hightower was a regular contributor midway through the season.

Senior Pape Diatta, however, turned out to be Georgia's out-of-nowhere contributor. Diatta finished the game with four 3-pointers for 12 points.

What this means

With the loss, Georgia will begin next week on the wrong side of the bubble. Mississippi State is all of sudden in the bubble conversation.

Mississippi State began the day No. 63 in the RPI. Mississippi State probably won't move up much following the win over Georgia, but it was able to pick up a Quadrant 2 victory with the win. Georgia won't be punished much for what is considered a Quadrant 1 loss. But the loss means Georgia will need to pick up a road win or two over much tougher opponents -- Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee -- in the final stretch of the season.

There is still time for Georgia to make a late run. While a 13-9 overall record doesn't look good, it actually isn't that bad considering the strength of the SEC and the new quadrant system, which is how the NCAA selection committee will evaluate tournament teams.

But while there is time, there isn't much of it. And following Wednesday's road trip to Vanderbilt, Georgia's schedule will be incredibly tough to close the season.

This story was originally published February 3, 2018 at 7:57 PM with the headline "Five observations following Georgia's loss to Mississippi State."