Vic Schaefer’s Mississippi State basketball team will be in front of a national audience when it hosts the South Carolina Gamecocks.
It’s always a good thing to get your team in front of the eyes of the entire nation. That’s what’s happening with tomorrow night’s Mississippi State basketball game as Vic Schaefer and his Bulldogs host Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks.
The best team relative to its sport on the campus of Mississippi State University is about to get national exposure.
That’s a pretty big deal.
This sort of exposure could do wonders for Vic Schaefer’s recruiting efforts. More than likely, this game will be played in front of an enormous crowd. If the Bulldogs don’t get a sellout for this game, they’ll get close to it.
When Mississippi State hosted South Carolina a season ago in early February of 2018, the Bulldogs had 10,794 Mississippi State basketball fans there in The Hump. Humphrey Coliseum technically only has a seating capacity of 10,575, for what that’s worth.
And so, the Bulldogs are getting a home game against a top 15 ranked foe that will be broadcast for just about everyone to see.
That’s not a bad situation.
For the Mississippi State basketball team to get the most benefit from this game being on ESPN, the Bulldogs will need to win. Defeating South Carolina hasn’t always been the easiest task for Vic Schaefer’s team, but this year could be different.
No, the Bulldogs don’t have that same level of experience that they had a season ago with four senior starters, but this group is incredibly talented and has some remarkable players. Plus, South Carolina lost quite a few stars of their own, including A’Ja Wilson.
This is certainly a winnable game for Schaefer and MSU. The Bulldogs have a great chance to get plenty of exposure here. Hopefully they’ll make the most of this opportunity. It may not help this team much, outside of possibly affecting seeding in the NCAA Tournament, but it could help with the perception of the program down the line.