Magnolia State college basketball teams set sights on conference and NCAA tournaments

In the sports world, March is known as the best month in the year as college conference tournaments and, of course, March Madness gets underway. The Magnolia state has teams on the bubble who could sneak in to the big dance if they perform well in their conference tournaments.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs have a 19-10 overall record with an 8-8 record in conference play. MSU is led by freshman point guard Josh Hubbard, who averages just over 16 points per game and is in the running for conference freshman of the year. In the most recent ESPN bracketology, Mississippi State sits at an 8 seed in the 2024 NCAA tournament. If the regular season were to come to an end today, the Bulldogs would hold the 7th seed in the SEC tournament and face 10th seeded Texas A&M. State still has two games to play in the regular season and could see their tournament seeds change based on the outcomes of those matchups.

Ole Miss has had a rollercoaster of a season – one that I’m sure they aren’t thrilled to still be riding. The Rebels began the season 13-0 and found themselves ranked as high as 22nd in the country. Since then, they are 7-9 and are in 9th place in the SEC standings. After this up and down season, the Rebels find themselves on the outside looking in for this years NCAA tournament and in the “Next Four Out” category of the bubble according to ESPN’s latest bracketology. If the regular season ended today, they would take on the 8th seeded LSU Tigers in the conference tournament. Like Mississippi State, the Rebels still have two games to play and could see their seeding change depending on if they win or lose.

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles round out our Mississippi teams looking to make some noise in March. USM sits one game over .500 at 16-15 on the year and went 9-9 in conference play. They are led by senior Austin Crowley, who averages 16 points per game on the year. The Sun Belt conference tournament begins tomorrow, but Southern Miss will not play until Thursday as they are the 6th seed. They will play the winner of 11th seeded Texas State and 14th seeded Old Dominion.