Mississippi State basketball will have to grind its way through 2024-2025 SEC schedule

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?

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.