7 of the women's last eight are against the bottom 7 in the league

[615dawg]

Only top half team they play is Ole Miss, and they already have a win.

No reason they should not push for a host position in the NCAAs.

Goat, the above is opinion.

 

[Dawgg]

Gonna be a tough road and the playing the bottom 7 will actually work against us. Less of a chance for quality wins and lots of chances for bad losses. Charlie Creme has us as a 9 seed right now.


I'm not saying it can't be done, but I think we need to win out the regular season, then get a quality win or two in the SEC Tourney to even have a shot of a 4 seed and we'd probably need several of these 3-5 loss teams to suffer an upset or two.

 

[She Mate Me]

That stretch where so many, including Purcell, were sick and we lost to Miami and Chattanooga hurt.

Could be 20-3 right now.

The only way to have any hope of a top 4 seed is to win out, IMO. Very low odds on that happening.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

No worries, we will turn on Purcell as soon as we get upset again.

 

[615dawg]

That stretch where so many, including Purcell, were sick and we lost to Miami and Chattanooga hurt.

Could be 20-3 right now.

The only way to have any hope of a top 4 seed is to win out, IMO. Very low odds on that happening.

We are 28th in the NET, which is 3rd amongst SEC teams. Right now we are No. 4 in the SEC standings, a game behind Ole Miss, who we have already beaten and still has a tough schedule.

If we finish top 4 in the SEC, we will be a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. If we go 6-2, our NET is projected to be 18th.

 

[Dawgg]

We are 28th in the NET, which is 3rd amongst SEC teams. Right now we are No. 4 in the SEC standings, a game behind Ole Miss, who we have already beaten and still has a tough schedule.

If we finish top 4 in the SEC, we will be a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. If we go 6-2, our NET is projected to be 18th.

18th in NET probably puts us in the 5 seed territory.

The problem is that the SEC today isn't what it was in the last half of the 2010's. Right now, in the NET rankings, it's kind of South Carolina at #1 and everybody else. LSU is at #13 and State is 3rd in the SEC at #29.

Then, it gets crowded. Games remaining:
@ Texas A&M - #36
vs Georgia - #96
vs Florida - #56
@ Ole Miss - #47
vs Kentucky - #161
@ Alabama - #33
@ Auburn - #60
vs Mizzou - #70

The only ones that help are the road games at Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Alabama. The rest are just there to suck our strength of schedule/record down. Even if we beat Kentucky again, it actually hurts us to even play in that game and if we lose one of the games that aren't Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and Alabama, it will be a killer.

Just looking back at the last few years (ranks are AP ranks)...
2023 - Ole Miss finished 4th in the conference and got an 8 seed.
2022 - Ole Miss finished 4th in the conference and got a 7 seed.
2021 - Georgia finished 4th in the conference and got a 3 seed (this was a strong year for the SEC. The #4, #6, #13, #15, and #18 teams were also in the conference and Georgia was ranked #10).
2019 - Kentucky finished 4th in the conference and got a 6 seed (another strong year for the SEC. The #4 team [State], #14, #15 teams were also in the conference. Kentucky was ranked #17).

I could be wrong, but I think they have to win out, then beat a top 50 NET team in the SEC Tournament.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

No worries, we will turn on Purcell as soon as we get upset again.

That's Parcells around here.

 

[She Mate Me]

Where we finish in the SEC will not be a consideration. I'll stand by what I said about winning out.

Honestly, I'll be pleasantly surprised if we can finish 6-2 after the way we came out last night. That was not a good team we came an eyelash from losing to. Hopefully a lesson was learned, but with so many very experienced players, why do they need those lessons??

 

[Dawgg]

Updated NET as of today... after winning 4 straight, including a win over #11 NET and defending national champion LSU, our NET skyrocketed from 29 to.... 27.

If we can just have 6 more weeks just like this, we'll be firmly in the hosting conversation.***

 

[leeinator]

We just need to let it go on our basketball coaches. Cut them some serious slack! They are in their 2nd year. Sometimes improvement doesn't show up in the won/[oss column. I'm all good with just letting Purcell and Jans having another 4-5 years to build.......UNLESS....they fall flat on their face like Lemonis has.....several years in a row.

 

[pseudonym]

We have a good shot to get a top-4 seed in the SEC tournament. The problem is LSU and Ole Miss also have easy schedules to finish the season.

 

[Dawgg]

We just need to let it go on our basketball coaches. Cut them some serious slack! They are in their 2nd year. Sometimes improvement doesn't show up in the won/[oss column. I'm all good with just letting Purcell and Jans having another 4-5 years to build.......UNLESS....they fall flat on their face like Lemonis has.....several years in a row.

Oh I'm all in on Purcell. I think what he's done to build this roster is amazing. Without a bout of sickness through the team costing two winnable games, we're sitting on 3 losses. One bad quarter against Tennessee and we're at 2 losses.

Jans, I'm willing to give a little more time too, but man... when I look at the hustle from the men's team compared to the women's team, it's like night and day.

 

[Dawgg]

We have a good shot to get a top-4 seed in the SEC tournament. The problem is LSU and Ole Miss also have easy schedules to finish the season.

I think we should get a Top 4 seed in the SEC Tournament.

That rematch with Ole Miss suddenly has some real implications. The only other team with a pulse they play are A&M and Arkansas.

LSU has Vanderbilt, A&M, Alabama, Auburn, and Tennessee left, so the mid-card. They should beat all of those teams, but any of them have an opportunity to upset them.

Tennessee has to play South Carolina twice, plus LSU, plus Texas A&M. Real good chance they come out 1-3 out of that group. Their other games are no gimmes either: Alabama, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, A&M. You could make the argument that they have the toughest remaining schedule in the league.

I looked at some of the of the teams under us (Alabama, Arkansas, Vanderbilt) and who could give them problems:
Alabama has Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn (who they already lost to), South Carolina, us, and A&M. If they come out with a winning record against that schedule, they deserve a top four seed.
Arkansas has Tennessee, A&M, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Ole Miss. I think at best they come out of that 3-2.
Vanderbilt has Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, A&M, and Arkansas. Again, best case is 3-2.

All that to say, I think we could lose 1 and maybe 2 if we beat Ole Miss and still get the double-bye.

 

[BonzoGoesToCollege]

We have a good shot to get a top-4 seed in the SEC tournament. The problem is LSU and Ole Miss also have easy schedules to finish the season.

True, but Tennessee who is 1 game ahead of us has SC twice, LSU, TAMU, @Vandy, @Bama, Arkansas left.

 

[85Bears]

Women’s basketball and Baseball, that’s where the money and fan support need to go

 

[She Mate Me]

The 4 home games should be wins. It's totally on us if they're not. So, 10-6 as a floor in the league should be baked in the cake.

The game at Ole Miss is really big. Right now it feels like there's South Carolina, then LSU, then kind of a battle among Tennessee, Ole Miss, us and maybe Bama for that 3rd best team in the league. If we can win at Ole Miss a ton of possibilities open up.

Hell, we've got the tiebreaker over LSU. Win out and you're almost certainly the SEC 2 seed and very likely an NCAA host.

Very difficult road, but there are no killers on that schedule.

 

[She Mate Me]

Women’s basketball and Baseball, that’s where the money and fan support need to go

Thanks for adding absolutely nothing to the board.

 

[garddog]

We should win out and we would be #2, we have the tie breaker over LSU.

 

[FlotownDawg]

New AP poll came out, and we are STILL not ranked. Only got 19 points and are 29th if the poll went back that far. Just ridiculous to not be ranked at this point.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

The girls came bounces back during the game. They can start out slow but change the way they're playing and take a game over. Right now that's only team that we have that has done that at Mississippi State in quite a while.

I agree with previous poster. We are seeing the initial affects of the NIL not only at Mississippi State but through the rest of basketball. I think with the NIL in place we're gonna swing one way or the other with men's basketball until it's stabilizes a little.

 

[She Mate Me]

New AP poll came out, and we are STILL not ranked. Only got 19 points and are 29th if the poll went back that far. Just ridiculous to not be ranked at this point.

We moved up 7 spots this week in the Massey Ratings. Biggest move up among the Top 50.

Still at #30 there. The losses when we weren't full strength are likely weighing us down. And the truth is we haven't played a tough schedule compared to most of the Top 25.

 

[Dawgg]

We moved up 7 spots this week in the Massey Ratings. Biggest move up among the Top 50.

Still at #30 there. The losses when we weren't full strength are likely weighing us down. And the truth is we haven't played a tough schedule compared to most of the Top 25.

You're not wrong about our schedule.

Warren Nolan has the SEC as the 3rd best conference in NET (behind the Pac-12 and the Big 12).

Conference NET Ranking - 2024 Women's College Basketball | WarrenNolan.com

2024 Women's College Basketball Conference NET - a ranking of conference based on the average NET Ranking of the teams in the conference.

www.warrennolan.com

And has us with the 83rd strength of schedule and 251st in Non-con strength of schedule:

NET Strength of Schedule (SOS) - Women's College Basketball | WarrenNolan.com

2024 Women's College Basketball NET Strength of Schedule (SOS) Updated Daily.

www.warrennolan.com

Our best non-conference opponent was Miami with a NET 36, which we lost, and after that, it's Belmont with a NET 67. We have as many non-conference opponents with a 200+ NET as we do non-conference opponents with a double digit NET.