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Mississippi State Basketball: Preseason Bracketology

By Andrew Miller

Mississippi State guard Shawn Jones Jr. (30) celebrates scoring a basket against Florida with guard Dashawn Davis (10) during overtime in a second round SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament game at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, March 9, 2023.Fla Ms G3 030923 An 038
Mississippi State guard Shawn Jones Jr. (30) celebrates scoring a basket against Florida with guard Dashawn Davis (10) during overtime in a second round SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament game at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, March 9, 2023.Fla Ms G3 030923 An 038 /
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Mississippi State basketball tips-off the 2023-2024 season tonight against Arizona State! Bulldog fans expect their squad to return to the tournament this season. Do the top bracketologists agree?

Mississippi State basketball is back! Chris Jans outperformed expectations in his first season, taking the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. Now, he’s got all five starters back from that squad. And with the addition of some big-time scorers in the offseason, the expectation is there for the Bulldogs to return to the Big Dance.

In fact, most Mississippi State fans would tell you they expect this team to easily earn a bid into the tournament, as opposed to sweating it out as they did last season, and then win once they’re there. Those hopes might be a bit high with the news that leading scorer and All-SEC center Tolu Smith will be out until mid-January with a foot injury. But Chris Jans has proven to be the type of coach to get the most of his roster, and he’s made the additions necessary to still give State a chance in Smith’s absence.

If the Bulldogs can weather the storm long enough for Smith to get healthy, the chance would be there to go on a run in league play that could lock them up a bid to the Dance. But how do prognosticators feel about Mississippi State? Do they share the same optimism for this squad that the Bulldog faithful do?

Let’s take a look at the preseason Bracketology…

ESPN: 8-seed, Midwest Region

CBS Sports: Last Four In 11-seed , Midwest or South (doesn’t specify)

Fox Sports: Not projected

Washington Post: 10-seed, South Region

SB Nation: 10-seed, South Region

Bracketville: 10-seed, West Region

The Bracketeer: First Four Out

Bracketometry: Last Four In 11-seed, West Region

These are just a handful of projections from some major publications as well as some of the top bracketologists in the game. There are a few notable bracketologists (well at least notable for dorks like me who keep up with this) who don’t have their projections out yet. But we can at least get an idea of how Mississippi State is viewed going into the season.

Most projections have MSU right on the bubble. I’d imagine the injury to Tolu Smith has plenty to do with that. Earlier brackets from over the summer typically had the Bulldogs as around an 8-seed. That is where ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has them, the high mark amongst this group.

The overall average is still a bit higher than most of these projections, though. The Bracket Matrix takes projections from several Bracketologists and averages them together for one complied bracket. The preseason matrix has Mississippi State as a 9-seed.

While I personally would still be a bit higher on State than some of the projections, it’s at least nice to see the Bulldogs projected in the field by most going into the season. That’s not something we’ve been used to seeing in recent years. The consensus is still that this should be a fun year for Mississippi State basketball.

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