Mississippi State Basketball: Group Predictions and Discussion on Louisville in the Final Four

Let’s Discuss Mississippi State Basketball and Louisville

Here at Maroon and White Nation, you’ve probably seen articles from me over the past few weeks and haven’t really seen much from anyone else. You may assume that I’m the only one working on the site at this level.

That’s not totally true. I’ve been in the middle of adding different voices and perspectives to Maroon and White Nation. I don’t want it to just be me sharing my thoughts on this site. I’ve actually added two guys to the MWN team and I’m excited about getting them going on here.

What we’ve done here is a discussion. We sat down and broke down our thoughts about the upcoming Mississippi State-Louisville game in the Final Four. And without further ado, here we are:

Let’s Dive Into It

Ethan Lee 
So, first and foremost, what are y’all’s thoughts on the season so far?
Did you expect the team to make it to the Final Four? Or did you expect them to get derailed at any point?

Jeremy Purdum 
I think I embraced the “Final Four or Bust” mentality of last year. The undefeated regular season was just icing on the cake. I expected to be here from the opening tip of the season with the team we returned last year.

Ethan Lee
I didn’t think the team would go undefeated through the regular season, but I certainly thought they had the makings of a team that could get back to the Final Four
Speaking of Final Four teams, thoughts on MSU not having to beat UConn to make it to the national title game. Is that better or worse than facing them in the Final Four?

Jeremy Purdum 
Wayyyyyyy better. I think we all saw last year that after that unprecedented win over UConn in the Final Four that they had nothing left in the tank for USC. Which no one blames them all.

Ethan Lee
For sure. Definitely a hard game to get up for once you’ve beaten the best team in the nation.

Jeremy Purdum
I still think USC could have thanked us in their postgame press conference for knocking out UConn who would have been them by +15 as they did twice this current year.

Ethan Lee
Dang it, Dawn Staley…

JK
I’m still incredibly bitter about USCe getting the championship last year. Our girls deserved it

Ethan Lee
You beat UConn, you win the national title. Thems the rules

JK 
As far as this year, I fully expected us to make the Final Four. Being a one seed, and only losing one game before the tournament was incredible and very fun to watch.
And yeah, in ten years ask who won the natty in 2017 and who knocked off UConn on a buzzer beater and I think more people will remember Morgan William

Jeremy Purdum
With the drawing storyline being the rematch with UConn in the title game, Vic has his work cut out for him keeping this team focused on Louisville who breezed through their region

How does Mississippi State Basketball Compare to Louisville?

Ethan Lee
Speaking of Louisville. They’re really good. Let’s talk about what State needs to do to beat them.
Besides the obvious of “score more points”

Jeremy Purdum 
Based on what I’ve seen and heard about them, they want to score a lot so I would imagine it will be a similar game to UCLA. Slow the game down and let McCowan dominate from inside to draw defenders in and leave our shooters open to make it rain

Ethan Lee
How big is it for Blair to be back into the swing of things and draining shots from deep? How much of an impact do y’all think that could hold in this game?

JK
Being able to keep pace from 3 is going to be key in this game so Blair needs to be sinking everything she shoots. If we can make those outside shots and dominate the boards we’ll have a great shot at winning this game

Jeremy Purdum 
Blair is the luxury teams like to forget about. Based off the efficiency of her last game though, she very well could be the factor that takes this game from a 4 point lead late to a 10 point lead late.

Can Mississippi State Basketball Win It All?

Ethan Lee 
Before we get into predicting the game and wrapping this up, I’ve got one more question. Assuming Mississippi State Basketball beats Louisville, say somewhere between 4-10 points, how likely is it that Mississippi State can beat UConn (or Notre Dame) in the championship game?

JK 
0% if it’s UConn. But it was 0% last time we played them too, sooooooo????

Ethan Lee 
I admittedly don’t like our chances at all if it is UConn. Especially given that we beat them last year

Jeremy Purdum 
100% if it’s Notre Dame. Go Irish in that game as well. But, realistically I’ll go 30% for UConn because few teams in the last decade have played 40 mins with the Huskies. We played 45 last year, people forget that. If it’s a close game late in the 3rd I expect the nerves to be on UConn about letting this happen……again.

Ethan Lee 
Okay. Prediction time. I’ve got Mississippi State basketball winning 77-75 over Louisville.

Jeremy Purdum 
I say Dawgs 78 Cards 70

JK 
Dawgs wins 84-69

And so, there you have it.

We all have the Bulldogs winning, but by varying degrees. Jeremy and JK are both a bit more confident in Mississippi State’s ability to score and are slightly more optimistic about how State’s defense will fare tonight. So, what about you? What do you think will happen?

Will Mississippi State demolish the Cardinals? Can the Bulldogs win it all this season? How does State stack up to the competition. We’ve given y’all our thoughts. Now, we’d love to hear about it from y’all.