NCAA Tournament March Madness

#83 Mississippi St

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Projection: likely out

Mississippi State’s resume looks like a team with a few headline wins but too many damaging defeats, which leaves it on the wrong side of the bubble. Road wins at Texas and at LSU and home victories over Oklahoma and Memphis show the floor of what this team can do, but those bright spots are offset by a lopsided trip to Kentucky and ugly home losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt that undermine consistency. A string of tight losses on neutral courts and a narrow defeat to in-state rival Mississippi show the team can compete in spots, yet those close calls do little to erase the weight of the bad losses or to replace missing marquee road wins over top conference rivals. The rest of the schedule hands the team clear chances to alter the narrative against Arkansas, Tennessee, Auburn and Missouri and in trips to South Carolina, Alabama and Florida, but failing to convert in those venues will leave the resume short on the kind of signature results a committee rewards. Taken together, the best moments prove potential while the worst results and the remaining body of work explain why the team is projected to be out.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/5North Alabama334W86-62
11/10(N)Iowa St5L96-80
11/15SE Louisiana259W75-68
11/20(N)Kansas St86L98-77
11/21(N)New Mexico42L80-78
11/24New Orleans202W81-78
11/28SMU37L87-81
12/3@Georgia Tech129W85-73
12/7(N)San Francisco102L65-62
12/13(N)Utah114W82-74
12/16LIU Brooklyn219W87-83
12/20Memphis105W71-66
12/29Alabama St313W94-56
1/3@Texas35W101-98
1/7Oklahoma61W72-53
1/10@Kentucky32L92-68
1/13Alabama17L97-82
1/17Mississippi73L68-67
1/21@Texas A&M33L88-68
1/24Vanderbilt12L88-56
1/28@LSU50W80-66
1/31@Missouri5931%
2/7Arkansas2227%
2/11Tennessee2126%
2/14@Mississippi7334%
2/18Auburn2632%
2/21@South Carolina8741%
2/24@Alabama1710%
2/25@Alabama1710%
2/28Missouri5953%
3/3@Florida86%
3/7Georgia3437%