Mississippi State basketball team must fight through SEC schedule

On Tuesday, the SEC announced the dates for its conference games in the 2024-2025 basketball season. The Mississippi State basketball team is expecting a great season in its third year under Chris Jans, so what did their SEC schedule look like?

This seems to have been the case for several years, but Mississippi State’s basketball team is facing a brutal stretch of games to start the conference. In four straight games, the Bulldogs host Kentucky, travel to Auburn, host Ole Miss and then travel to Tennessee.

Kentucky may be entering a new era under Mark Pope, but it’s still Kentucky. Auburn should dominate again, and State hasn’t won on the Plains since 2015. Ole Miss is considered the dark horse in the SEC, and this game is always a tough matchup anyway. And Knoxville is always a very difficult venue.

The state’s first two SEC games should be wins. The Bulldogs first host South Carolina, which looks to take a big step back this season after its breakout season in 2024. Then they travel to Vanderbilt, and although Memorial Gymnasium has been a house of horrors for MSU, they should be able to handle the ‘Dores.

There’s not exactly a chance to catch your breath after that. We’ve already mentioned the mid-January schedule, but it doesn’t get much easier after that. Back-to-back games against Missouri and Georgia seem somewhat favorable, but UGA is expected to fare much better. There’s no real break to pull off easy wins.

But that’s life in the modern SEC. The league was already a real challenge, and the addition of Texas adds another top-tier program.

Almost every game is an uphill battle, and if you want to have an impressive year, you have to play at a high level. Fortunately for MSU, Chris Jans has shown he is capable of coaching his teams to big wins and has built a roster that is competitive in this league. It’s a challenging schedule, but the Bulldogs will be up to the task.