Mississippi State women's basketball is fighting to make a return to the NCAA Tournament. At 16-6 with a couple nice wins to their name, they're currently projected to do so. And according to bracketology, they'd be travelling across the country for the tournament's opening rounds.
ESPN Bracketology sends Mississippi State women's basketball to Los Angeles for regional
In his most recent bracketology update, ESPN's Charlie Creme has Mississippi State women's basketball West Coast bound. Creme projects the Bulldogs as an 8-seed in "Region 1". In this bracket, they would head to the Los Angeles regional, hosted by projected 1-seed UCLA, for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Not only would Mississippi State be traveling across the country by this bracket, they'd also face off against a West Coast team besides the regional host Bruins. State's first round matchup would be against the 9-seed Oregon Ducks. That'd be an incredibly difficult draw for the Bulldogs considering the Ducks would be far more likely to bring a considerable number of fans to the game given their much-closer proximity.
Of course as an 8-seed, your draw is already somewhat unfavorable seeing as how, if you win your opening game, you then would almost certainly face a 1-seed in the next round. Potentially getting UCLA, currently undefeated and ranked #1, in their home gym would be a frightening matchup.
That said, having the Bulldogs as an 8-seed, even if they got sent out to L.A., is fair. Mississippi State is currently #34 in the NET, and while they have a pair of good wins, they've lost to most of the quality teams they've played, having beaten up on weaker competition for the majority of their wins to this point.
If State wants to improve upon that projection, they'll need to seriously step it up over the back half of SEC play. They've got a few more opportunities to add resume-boosting wins down the stretch, but to have a chance in those games, they'll need much better efforts than what they've shown against quality opponents so far.