Ole Miss Hits Meaningless Buzzer-Beater To Cover Spread Against Michigan State

Is it a bad beat, or is it not a bad beat? That is the question for which you will be the judge. Michigan State beat Ole Miss in the Sweet 16 on Friday night, 73-70. The spread entering the game was Ole Miss +3.5, so they covered. 

But they did so with a meaningless buzzer-beating three-pointer. Not only did the shot drop, but the shot was made by a player shooting 31.5% from three on the season, came from near the Sweet 16 logo and bounced off the backboard and rim before dropping. 

On the surface, this looks like a classic bad beat. Michigan State bettors feeling pretty good up six points with Ole Miss inbounding from under its own basket with four seconds left. 

A shot that had no business dropping falls to hit the backdoor cover. It's gross, there's no question. 

That being said, Ole Miss bettors probably deserved to cover this one. The Rebels led for the majority of the game, with Michigan State not getting its first lead until midway through the second half. 

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When the Spartans took a four-point lead with 40 seconds left, it was their biggest lead of the game at that point. Meaning that prior to the layup that extended the lead to four, Ole Miss had been covering the spread for 39 minutes and 20 seconds. 

Michigan State defeated Ole Miss in the Sweet 16 on Friday night, but the Rebels covered the 3.5-point spread.

(Grant Halverson/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Ole Miss hit a bucket to get it back to two points before Sparty drained another pair of free throws to push it back into cover territory. Then, the same sequence happened again. 

After an Ole Miss missed three-pointer, Michigan State hit two more free throws to stretch its lead to a game-high six points. That also meant MSU went 6-6 from the free throw line in the final minutes. How often does that happen in a college basketball game? 

Add it all up, and Michigan State was covering the spread for a grand total of 30 seconds the entire game. 

Yeah, it sucks that they lost the cover on a meaningless buzzer-beater. But, quite frankly, they should never have covered in the first place. Sometimes the betting gods reward the right side, and that's what happened here.