The Mississippi State women did it again.
Monday afternoon it was announced that the Mississippi State women’s basketball team will head into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed for the second straight year.
MSU will take on 16th-seeded Southern University at about 8:30 p.m. Friday at Humphrey Coliseum, or 30 minutes after No. 8 seed South Dakota and No. 9 Clemson conclude their 6 p.m. game.
“They’re going to be a tremendous opponent for us,” MSU head coach Vic Schaefer said.
“Great guard play, athleticism, quickness and so we’ll have to be ready to go on Friday against that group.”
While the official announcement of the Bulldogs’ placement was not supposed to be revealed officially until 6 p.m. Monday, a snafu on ESPNU around 3 p.m. leaked the brackets early.
That said, MSU still held a public viewing party for the selection show at Humphrey Coliseum as scheduled with the women’s team and coaching staff on hand.
Though the television announcement around 6:30 p.m. was rather anti-climactic for the players, the fans in attendance roared in approval as their beloved team was headed to March Madness once more.
“I want to thank everyone for being here today,” Schaefer said in his address to the crowd. “It’s such a special day for all of us here at Mississippi State.”
There’s a level of revenge for this year’s MSU team. Onlookers were reminded of these sentiments Monday night when the ESPN broadcast showed the go-ahead 3-pointer Notre Dame guard Arike Ogunbowale drained in the waning seconds of last year’s national championship game that sank MSU.
Bulldog fans jeered and booed in distaste at the heartbreaking reminder of how agonizingly close they came to a title just a year ago.
After losing four starters from last season’s national runners-up, questions swirled as to whether Schaefer’s bunch could rebound from such a staunch loss of talent.
That they have.
Following a regular season in which the Bulldogs tore through their schedule en route to a 27-2 record and an SEC title, the hot start persisted into the postseason.
MSU barreled through the SEC Tournament, defeating Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas by a combined total of 61 points.
The run was capped off by a 31-point shellacking of the Razorbacks in the tournament championship game.
