Mississippi State basketball is playing its best ball of the season. The Bulldogs have won five-straight, winning four of those games with relative ease. State's coming off what was almost certainly its best performance so far, a 87-67 blowout over a hot LSU team in Baton Rouge. And as a result, they've put themselves in a great position to return to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year.
MSU entered these past five games in desperate need of some wins. Some of those matchups they simply could not afford to lose, and some were games they needed to help strengthen the resume. They won them all and are now just a few finishing touches away from locking up a bid to the Big Dance.
That recent success is reflected in the most recent bracketology updates.
Current Bracket Projections
ESPN: 8-seed, South Region
CBS Sports: 9-seed, Midwest Region
Fox Sports: 8-seed, South Region
Andy Katz: 9-seed, South Region
Bleacher Report: 10-seed, East Region
Bracketville: 7-seed, Midwest Region
On3: 8-seed, East Region
Bracketometry: 8-seed, West Region
Bracketeer: 7-seed, West Region
Making the Madness: 8-seed, South Region
Heat Check CBB: 8-seed, East Region
USA Today: 9-seed, South Region
JBR Bracketology: 7-seed, East Region
T3 Bracketology: 8-seed
Bracket Matrix Average: 9-seed
Takeaways
Mississippi State basketball is nearly a consensus single-digit seed at the moment by major bracketologists. Even Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller, the low man in these projections with State as a 10-seed, has stated that one more regular season win is likely enough to lock the Bulldogs in the field.
This five-game winning streak has been huge for MSU. They've added a pair of road wins, which the lack thereof had been a major red flag on the resume. They added two more Quad 2 wins, moving their Quad 1/2 record to a respectable 8-6. And perhaps most importantly, they've been mostly dominant in this stretch with 4/5 wins coming by double digits. That's boosted the Bulldogs profile enough that they are now a consensus top-30 team in the NET and the various metrics used by the Selection Committee.
Mississippi State is on the cusp of locking up a bid back to March Madness. Most likely, one more win over these final two weeks would assure the Bulldogs hear their names called on Selection Sunday. With two more, you could all but assure they remain a single-digit seed.
They're in prime position to go dancing yet again. Tuesday night's rematch with Kentucky at the Hump is a massive opportunity at finalizing the deal.