18. Mississippi State Bulldogs
Record: 12-1 (0-0 SEC)
Last Week: No. 18
I’m not sure why Mississippi State is not getting more national coverage at this point in time. The Bulldogs entered the year as a top-25 team, lost one game to Arizona State, and seemingly fell out of the nation’s favor as there have been very few words written about the team despite playing extremely well outside of that one loss. Mississippi State has secured six wins over teams ranked in the KenPom top-100 and they only have that one defeat on their resume. Quite simply, Mississippi State has played to, if not exceeded slightly, expectations thus far.
With SEC play coming up next, Mississippi State will be challenged plenty throughout the rest of the year. To kickstart conference play, the Bulldogs will go on the road to face South Carolina. And while the Gamecocks are not perceived to be very good (No. 127 in KenPom), winning on the road in conference play is always difficult. Following that matchup, things do not get any easier at home as two NCAA Tournament hopefuls in Ole Miss and Florida come to Starkville.
In order for Mississippi State’s hot non-conference play to carry over into the SEC schedule, their tremendous shooting from the field will need to continue. As of right now, the Bulldogs rank 19th in the nation in effective field goal percentage (56.2%) thanks to top-50 rankings in 3P%, 2P%, and FT%. The shooters on this team will make any opponent pay when left open, especially beyond the arc.