On Tuesday the SEC announced the dates for its conference matchups in the 2024-2025 basketball season. Mississippi State basketball is expecting to have a big season in their third year under Chris Jans. So how did their SEC schedule shake out?
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Mississippi State's toughest stretch of the season comes in January.
This has seemed to be the case for several years now, but Mississippi State basketball will face a brutal stretch of games early in conference play. In four-straight games the Bulldogs will host Kentucky, travel to Auburn, host Ole Miss, and then travel to Tennessee.
While Kentucky is entering a new era under Mark Pope, it's still Kentucky. Auburn should be dominant once again, and State hasn't won on the Plains since 2015. Ole Miss is getting love as a dark horse SEC team, and that game is always a battle regardless. And Knoxville is always a very difficult place to play.
After the first two SEC games, there isn't a light stretch on Mississippi State's schedule.
State's first two SEC games should be wins. The Bulldogs open by hosting South Carolina, who looks to take a big step back this season after a breakthrough in 2024. They'll then travel to Vanderbilt, and while Memorial Gymnasium has been a house of horrors for MSU, they should handle the 'Dores.
After that, there's not exactly a chance to catch your breath. We've already mentioned the mid-January slate, but things don't get much easier after that. Consecutive games against Missouri and at Georgia seem somewhat favorable, but UGA is expected to be much-improved. There's no real break to rack-up easy wins.
But that's just life in the modern SEC. The league was already a gauntlet, and the addition of Texas adds another high-caliber program into the mix.
Nearly every game is a grind, and if you're going to have an impressive year, you have to play at a high-level. Fortunately for MSU, Chris Jans has shown he's capable of coaching his teams to big wins and has built a roster that can be competitive in this league. It's a challenging schedule, but the Bulldogs will be up to the task.