Mississippi State women's basketball routs Jacksonville in WBCA Showcase

Mississippi State women's basketball is leaving the Happiest Place on Earth as happy as they could possibly be. The Bulldogs defeated Jacksonville 80-35 in the WCBA Showcase Sunday afternoon at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on the grounds of Disney World. State is now 6-0 on the season.

We can't say enough about how well the Bulldogs are playing on defense

This has been a takeaway from practically every game, but it bears repeating. Mississippi State is absolutely dominant on the defensive end. They already came into this game with the #1 scoring defense in the country, and they'll stay there after holding Jacksonville to just 35 points. The Dolphins shot just 18.9% from the floor and 5.6% from three. State held Edyn Battle, who'd been averaging 21 a game, to 1-16 shooting. She only managed 10 points because of free throws. Jacksonville's most points scored in a quarter was 10. This is a Jacksonville team that put up 71 on Miami in a tight loss. The MSU defense looks special.

Mississippi State has some real talent at center

Jessika Carter was a huge loss from last year's team, and while no one player is going to replace her, the Bulldogs have multiple good pieces at center. Newcomer Madina Okot has taken over the starting role and has impressed. Today she posted 11 points and seven boards. On the year, she's averaging 11.7 and 9.3. Backing her up is is Quanirah Montague, who's given good minutes all season. Her season numbers don't jump off the page, but today she went for a career-high 17 points to go along with seven boards. State's got good enough talent at the Five to be strong in their post defense (as we've seen) and attack down low on offense.

Now's when things start to get tougher for Mississippi State

While this is a great start to the season, there's no getting around the fact that they've been on easy-mode through their first six games. None of these teams could provide a true challenge to them. That will change later this week. State travels to the Cayman Islands over Thanksgiving for the Cayman islands Classic where they'll face South Florida and Utah in consecutive games. USF is a consistently good mid-major program, and while Utah isn't incredible, it's a power conference team. The following week, they'll play at Georgia Tech, who's currently unbeaten. This stretch will tell us a lot more about how good MSU actually is.