Mississippi State women’s basketball to host Miami Hurricanes during ACC/SEC Challenge

Sam Purcell and his Mississippi State Bulldogs will get an interesting challenge from the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge as the Bulldogs get the chance to host the Miami Hurricanes.

The inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge is bringing an intriguing match up to Starkville, Mississippi as the Miami Hurricanes will be coming to town to face off against Sam Purcell and the Mississippi State women’s basketball team.

The Bulldogs and Hurricanes haven’t had many opportunities to meet up in the past. In fact, Mississippi State and Miami have only faced off in one prior meeting. As Kelly Shipp notes in Mississippi State’s official news release, the Bulldogs and Hurricanes last faced each other back in 1987.

During that meeting (in Anchorage, Alaska, of all places), Mississippi State was able to beat Miami by a score of 81-67. (This isn’t really related but more college basketball games should be played in Anchorage, Alaska, to be honest).

Mississippi State women’s basketball schedule: Bulldogs to host Miami Hurricanes during inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge

The Hurricanes fared pretty well last season. Miami managed to go 22-13 during the 2022-2023 season. In ACC play, the Hurricanes posted an 11-7 record. However, an overwhelming amount of that success was seen at home, where the Hurricanes had a 14-4 record.

In neutral site games, Miami was 3-2. In away games, the Hurricanes were 5-7.

Miami was able to make a pretty solid run through the NCAA Tournament, which featured wins over the Oklahoma State Cowgirls, Indiana Hoosiers, and Villanova Wildcats before falling short to the LSU Tigers.

While not to the same extent as Miami’s strong season, Purcell and the Bulldogs are fresh off of a pretty successful season of their own. 2022-2023 is a season in which MSU fans saw the Mississippi State women’s basketball team make the NCAA Tournament and have some success while there.

The Bulldogs went 22-11, including 9-7 in SEC play and 14-2 at home, but State truly struggled on the road. In away games, MSU was a meager 3-7. However, MSU was 5-2 in neutral site contests.

This will be an intriguing match up for Purcell and will be a great chance for his MSU basketball team to prove just how far they’ve come under his guidance up to this point.