Madness begins for Mississippi State in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Let the madness begin.
Mississippi State got a taste of the madness of March a season ago when the Bulldogs played in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four with a play-in matchup against Pittsburgh. Shakeel Moore’s wide-open look from the corner rimmed out and DJ Jeffries putback would follow suit as the Bulldogs’ season ended in heartbreaking fashion in a 60-59 loss against the Panthers.
That moment helped build this 2023-24 Bulldog basketball team beginning with the goal of making it back to the NCAA Tournament and, this time, skipping that play-in game. State did just that with a strong finish in the SEC Tournament that included wins over LSU and No. 5 Tennessee before bowing out in a tough battle against eventual champion Auburn.
This team’s moment is now as the No. 8 seeded Bulldogs meet with legendary head coach Tom Izzo and his No. 9 Spartans of Michigan State on Thursday morning. An experienced team full of seniors feels a lot different this time around.
“I’ve got all kinds of emotions right now – I don’t know how to feel,” DJ Jeffries said. “I’m going to go out there and give it my all. I’m blessed to have a chance to play six more games and we have one more. We’ve got to go out there and play hard and whatever happens happens.”
SEC Tournament could be springboard for Bulldog run
The Bulldogs (21-13) come into Thursday playing some good basketball, but it hadn’t been like that prior to the SEC Tournament. After State won five-straight games in the middle of February, a heartbreaking loss to Kentucky at the buzzer would start a four-game losing streak and all of them were against NCAA Tournament teams.
State was facing what felt like a must-win opportunity in Nashville last week and came away with a 70-60 victory thanks to an incredible turnaround in the second half. That was followed up by a dominant 73-56 win over SEC regular season champs Tennessee that firmly put the Bulldogs in the tournament.
“I think those losses helped us, motivated us going into the SEC Tournament,” All-SEC center Tolu Smith said. “I think we have all the confidence in the world right now going into the NCAA Tournament. So we’ve just got to bottle that up and use it for this game and the next games.”
Thursday will be the Bulldogs’ 10th neutral site game of the season and the Bulldogs have been as good as just about anyone on those kind of courts. The Bulldogs enter the matchup with the Spartans at 8-1 on the season on a neutral floor including a perfect 6-0 against non-conference teams.
To win this one, the biggest key is to make sure that Michigan State is limited in what they do in transition. That even includes after made baskets.
“That’s what jumps out at me the most. I don’t spend a lot of time watching other teams during the season, so I wasn’t familiar with that. When I think of Michigan State, I think of the toughness, the rebounding, Tom Izzo. But that’s what surprised me the most,” coach Chris Jans said of Michigan State in transition.
“It’s easy to say in terms of, yeah, let’s just get back and guard them, but it’s hard to do when they do it at such breakneck speed.”
The Bulldogs and Spartans tipoff at Charlotte’s Spectrum Arena on Thursday at 11:15 a.m. CT.
