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Mississippi State earns third straight NCAA Tournament berth, set to face Baylor in first round

Paul Jones Mississippi State Bulldogsby:Paul Jones•about 8 hours•

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Players celebrate with KeShawn Murphy after a basket and foul. (Photo by Mississippi State Athletics)

Mississippi State (21-12) didn’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday and the Bulldogs already knew they had a berth locked in for March Madness. But now the Bulldogs know their next foe and destination.

The Bulldogs were the 8th seed in the East Region and will face 9th seed Baylor on Friday in Raleigh, N.C. The Mississippi State-Baylor winner will face to face either No. 1 seed Duke or American/Mount St. Mary’s on Sunday.

Baylor finished 19-14 in the regular season and posted a 10-10 record inside the Big 12, good enough for 7th place. The Bears faced two SEC teams this season, collecting a 72-67 win over Arkansas and suffering a 77-62 loss to Tennessee.

Tip-off time and television broadcast will be released later tonight. The Bulldogs went 1-1 in this week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., routing LSU in the opener before falling to MIssouri.

With the at-large bid, head coach Chris Jans becomes the first coach in school history to reach a third consecutive NCAA Tournament in his first three seasons. It also marks the first time State has reached the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive seasons since making the NCAA Tournament in four straight seasons from 2002-05 under former head coach Rick Stansbury.

For Jans, it also becomes his sixth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last eight seasons of his coaching career. Jans took New Mexico State to the 2018 and 2019 NCAA Tournament where he knocked off UConn in the 2019 NCAA Tournament, which is the Huskies’ most recent NCAA Tournament loss.

Jans was set to take New Mexico State to the 2020 NCAA Tournament before Covid prematurely ended the season. Then in the 2020-21 season, New Mexico State only played 20 games due to a Covid-reduced schedule.

Overall, Mississippi State owns an 11-13 all-time record in NCAA Tournament games. The Bulldogs have lost their last five contests in the NCAA Tournament with the last win coming in the 2008 South Regional with a 77-69 first-round win over Oregon in Little Rock, Ark.

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