Mississippi State Basketball: Bulldogs set up an outstanding 2018-19 campaign

Mississippi State made it to the Final Four of the NIT this season. Is it possible the Bulldogs are in a different kind of Final Four next year?

After three disastrous seasons under former head coach Rick Ray, Mississippi State went in a different direction. They made a big splash hire, going after former UCLA and Pittsburgh Head Coach Ben Howland.

He was known for his outstanding recruiting skills and used them immediately to bring in high-level talent. The Bulldogs were a .500 team with an inexperienced roster in the first couple of years and suffered a setback with Malik Newman leaving after his freshman year to go to Kansas.

One of the issues with this team is that there were no defined roles on the team. Everyone was a go-to guy at some point and there wasn’t a true system or identity for the team (a past complaint of Howland).

That seemed to change this year, with the Weatherspoon brothers (Nick and Quinndary) becoming the team leaders. The Bulldogs also found their primary point guard in Lamar Peters, who started the final 17 games of the season and leading the team with 4.5 apg.

As a team, Mississippi State finished 25-12 for the season and went 9-9 in the SEC, which was an impressive feat in itself. A big reason why they had no shot at the NCAA Tournament was due to a lackluster non-conference schedule. Hopefully next season it’ll be much tougher.

What makes this a team to watch for next season is that everyone returns. The top two scorers will become seniors, and there will finally be experienced Bulldogs to lead the way.

Next: Preview of the 3X3U National Championship

The SEC will be even tougher next season, but so will Mississippi State, who will be looking to get back to the Rick Stansbury days, where tournament appearances were regular things for the program.