When Mississippi State women's basketball went to the SEC Tournament a week and a half ago, they found themselves needing one win to completely lock themselves into the NCAA Tournament. They handled business in their first game in Greenville to make that happen. And while they couldn't add any more wins to improve their positioning, we know here on Selection Sunday that they'll be back in the Big Dance.
But where are they headed? According to ESPN's Charlie Creme, the Bulldogs will be making a trip out to the West Coast.
Mississippi State women's basketball projected as a 9-seed in ESPN's final bracketology
In Charlie Creme's final bracketology, he's got Mississippi State women's basketball as the 9-seed in Region 3. He sends the Bulldogs out to Los Angeles, where 1-seed USC is the host. State's first round opponent would be the 8-seed Cal Golden Bears.
That'd obviously be a tricky draw. Beyond likely seeing a 1-seed in the second round (if they made it there), their first round opponent would get to play in their home state while State would be traveling cross-country. That's not to mention that Cal is a really good team just in general.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs will almost certainly head to Los Angeles for first weekend of the NCAA Tournament
Assuming Mississippi State lands as a 9-seed, or even if they were bumped up to an 8, we can just about guarantee that the Bulldogs will be playing the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament out in Los Angeles.
Two of the projected 1-seeds are South Carolina and Texas. As a general rule, regular season opponents, especially conference mates, shouldn't meet in the first weekend of the tournament. The super conference era has led to the selection committee becoming more lax on this, but they'll avoid it if they can.
And in this case, they can. Along with USC, the other non-SEC 1-seed is UCLA. That means that you can lock in the Bulldogs to play in Los Angeles. It's just a matter of whether they're in downtown LA or Westwood.