As the Bulldogs shift the focus to Mcneese State on Saturday evening in Tupelo, Mississippi, one can’t help but notice the vibes around the program continue to build into a height never before for Mississippi State Basketball. As of now, Bracket expert Joe Lunardi has the Bulldogs as five-seed with a chance of reaching even higher depending on performance in the Southeastern Conference play. What a lot of people don’t realize about this team is the talent they have up and down the roster; there’s no doubt that Coach Jans has a sleeper on his hand to reach the Final Four for the first time since the 1995-1996 season where the Bulldogs won the Southeastern Conference Tournament while earning a trip through the NCAA Tournament to the Final Four before falling to Syracuse. 

There’s something about this year’s Mississippi State Basketball team that strikes the naked eye as a basketball team with the skill set to play spoiler once March Madness rolls around. In an extremely deep Southeastern Conference, Mississippi State can play spoiler in the race for the regular season Championship while earning a double-bye in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, having to play on Friday. In contrast, others have to play on Wednesday or Thursday, creating an advantage for the well-being of the guys on the roster in terms of needed rest to make a run in March. 

Mississippi State has an interesting week ahead with Mcneese State on Saturday, a neutral site game with Central Michigan on Tuesday night, before heading just a few hours to the northwest to the FedEx Forum to take on the Memphis Tigers for a highly anticipated matchup with a Memphis team which finished second in the Maui Invitational with wins over UConn and Michigan State. For Mississippi State, we’ll learn a lot about where they sit heading into Southeastern Conference play, where they open South Carolina and Vanderbilt before a massive Saturday night showdown with Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats. 

Like any other program, Mississippi State faces the harsh reality that the Southeastern Conference is the deepest ever. There’s a very real possibility that the Southeastern Conference could see as many as thirteen or fourteen schools reach the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday; Mississippi State will face adversity with a few losses in a row; it’s what Coach Jans and the Bulldogs do with those losses that with determine how successful January and February are for the program, and will go a long way in determining the path forward in the NCAA Tournament. 

Undoubtedly, the talent is there; Mississippi State has a good basketball team that could make the next three months very interesting for those in Starkville. As the Bulldogs navigate the last few weeks of nonconference basketball, the energy around the program will likely hit an all-time high as they shift the focus to the Southeastern Conference opener against South Carolina at the Hump on January 4th. As the season progresses, expect the Hump to be rocking every night as the Bulldogs chase an SEC Championship and another trip to the Final Four.