Chris Jans believes Mississippi State is an NCAA Tournament team

Following an SEC Tournament loss to Alabama, Mississippi State is in the uncomfortable position of watching and waiting to see whether it will earn an NCAA Tournament berth.

The Bulldogs are squarely on the bubble.

“I personally think that we should be selected, of course,” coach Chris Jans said. “I mean, I coach this team, I know how tough they are. We got I think eight Quad 1, Quad 2 wins. I think four of them are in the top 27 NET. We got some higher quality wins.”

Mississippi State also managed to win a game at the NCAA Tournament, beating Florida to move into the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.

But the Bulldogs’ positioning has been tenuous for weeks. Jans just hopes his team did enough to show the selection committee that they’re a worthy team.

“Again, it’s out of our control now,” Jans said. “That’s been a mantra that we’ve had for a few weeks, to be honest. We felt like we were in position to control the outcome of being selected or not, just like you have a lot to do with the outcome of each and every game. Now it’s sit and wait. That’s the situation we’re in.”

Mississippi State won everywhere

One of the points of emphasis for Jans in making an NCAA Tournament case is that Mississippi State has wins at home, on the road and at neutral sites.

He thinks that makes a strong case for his team.

“The thing that I’ve loved about this team all year long is we got a bunch of wins away from home,” he said. “We’re not one of those teams that has a great — we have a great home-court advantage, but we’re not one of those teams that just won all of them at home and survived on the road one or two. We won a bunch of games. Obviously that’s where the NCAA Tournament games are played, away from your home site.

“We’ll see. Time will tell. Certainly going to be a long weekend sitting around and waiting.”