Would Bernie have performed better had he actually competed in the South?

[RaphaelDLG]

Hindsight is 20-20, but he should have pulled out of South Carolina earlier, spent more in the whiter upper south states like Tennessee, Virginia because he could have done much better there. 

No disrespect to Bernie, but the Clintons are unbeatable among black voters - even against Obama, HRC was winning black voters by a significant margin at the beginning.  He wasn't going to build a relationship with them that was good enough no matter what policies he proposed or how hard he campaigned in just a few months, barring an endorsement from Obama or something.

[RaphaelDLG]

Probably, he wouldn't flip a bunch of states but I imagine he could make a play for Tennessee and maybe Virginia, as well as manage only 20 point losses in both Georgia, South Carolina, and hold Clinton below 70 in Mississippi, and below 65 in Louisiana, and below 60 in Texas.     

I don't think so, not without doing worse in the other states.  You should remember that 1) he had little name recognition so spending money even in favorable white liberal states was very necessary and 2) he had a very finite amount of money for expensive ad buys.

I think he should have spread his resources out more evenly because the big margins in the states he didn't campaign in at all killed him but still punted the states where basically all of the Democrats are black (i.e., Clinton Country).