24. Mississippi State (9-1)
There will be no shortage of SEC teams mentioned today in these rankings but Mississippi State has given reason enough for their own inclusion. The Bulldogs have a nice road win at SMU and blew out Pittsburgh a week ago and are doing things right especially on offense. We don’t know right now how this team is going to hold up in league play, but they did grab two more wins in the last seven days.
That timespan includes last Sunday, when the Bulldogs played horrific defense but held on for a 91-84 win over Prairie View A&M. Josh Hubbard scored 25 points while Claudell Harris Jr. added 21 points in the victory. Speaking of close calls, the Bulldogs were in Tupelo on Saturday and survived McNeese State, getting a 66-63 win over the Cowboys. RJ Melendez stood out with 18 points while Hubbard added 16 this time around.
We mentioned a few names from this team but the Bulldogs are a talented bunch. The big concern is that the defense hasn’t exactly been stellar at times, especially in their late November loss against Butler, and you have to wonder how it holds up when playing teams like Alabama or Auburn more regularly. The immediate concern is Memphis, as they’ll take a road trip to see those Tigers with a major chance for another standout victory.