Could 2015-16 Be the Year State Finally Makes a Bowl, Big Dance and Regional?
Strangely enough Mississippi State has never done all of the following in the same academic year:
- play in a bowl game
- play in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament
- play in a baseball Regional
It’s kind of flukey really, because somehow MSU has never really had a good football team and a good basketball team in the same [academic] year. Baseball has been the most consistent, at least over the last 45 years, but getting football and basketball on the same page has been pretty tough. And the few times it’s actually happened baseball has been the one to let the group down.
The first NCAA Tournament Mississippi State ever played in (because of not being allowed to) was the “game of change” in 1963. State also played in the Liberty Bowl in 1963….but, alas, it was not in the same academic year. Basketball was 1962-63 and football was 1963-64.
The history continues: 1990-91 saw no bowl but a NCAA Tourney, then the following two years there was a bowl with no NCAA Tourney.
Now, 1994-95 did feature a trip to the Peach Bowl and a Sweet 16, but – baseball under Ron Polk, who had made a Regional is 13 of the previous 15 years including seven in a row, was the only hold out.
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So, of course, Polk gets things straightened out in 1996 and before him the basketball team went to the Final Four but it was for naught as Jackie Sherrill’s 1995 team was just 3-8.
Three straight bowl games for MSU from 1998-2000 was coupled with three straight years of not going to the big dance for the basketball program. Once Rick Stansbury got things figured out in 2002 it was the beginning of the end for JWS in 2001.
While Sly Croom was tallying up three win seasons the hard court Dawgs were making their third and fourth straight NCAA Tournaments. Then finally both programs got together in 2007-08 but once again baseball, who had just been to Omaha the previous year in their fifth straight Regional and 11th in 12 years, had perhaps their worst season ever!
How do you figure this kind of stuff can happen? But it continues…
2011-12 featured what should have been a chance to turn the feat but the basketball team fell apart after a 19-5 start to miss the big dance. That put them in a tailspin the next few years while the football program reached new heights never seen before.
Could this crazy streak end in 2015-16? It’s certainly possible. While 2014-15 featured a great football team with horrible basketball and baseball, the latter two are expected to bounce back in a big way next year. Many “experts” have MSU football pegged for last or next to last in the SEC West but no one is suggesting they won’t make a bowl game. I’m already on record for saying Ben Howland will get the Bulldogs to the big dance in 2016. The baseball team will be completely revamped and I’m expecting a solid rebound there for Coach Cohen.
It’s an odd streak. Especially for an athletic department that made six bowls, three NCAA Tournaments and eight Regionals in one decade (1990s)….one of only five schools to play in a New Year’s Bowl game, Final Four and College World Series in that decade. Hopefully it will end in 2015-16.
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