Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Ben Howland has been known to get a little hyperbolic about the strengths of the Bulldogs’ opponents.

But No. 5 Auburn necessitates no exaggeration.

The Tigers (25-4, 13-3 Southeastern Conference) were ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for three weeks not so long ago. They’ve been in the top five since Jan. 10. And they’re playing this week for the SEC regular-season title.

Add in the fact that Auburn is coming off a loss — Saturday’s 67-62 defeat at No. 13 Tennessee — and Mississippi State (17-12, 8-8 SEC) has a lot to account for at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Starkville.

“I think our guys are excited,” Howland said Tuesday. “We know how good they are.”

Per KenPom.com, Tigers are the best team the Bulldogs will have faced since Jan. 25 against Kentucky, a double-overtime loss. MSU’s Jan. 28 game at Texas Tech, a 76-50 loss, was its last contest against a top-10 team.

Missing opportunities like those is why Wednesday’s game could mean a ton for the Bulldogs should they win. Mississippi State is No. 53 in the critical NCAA NET rankings thanks to a paltry 2-8 record in Quadrant 1 games.

The matchup with Auburn will be another Quad 1 contest, as will — for now — Saturday’s regular-season finale at Texas A&M. A win Wednesday might not mean much should the Bulldogs be unable to take down the Aggies in College Station, and even wins in both games might have to be supplemented by an SEC tournament run.

But that’s getting ahead of Mississippi State, which has quite the task against the Tigers. Auburn might have lost three of its past six games, but that came after winning 19 in a row from Nov. 25 to Feb. 5.

Howland said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, now in his eighth season at the school, “has done a wonderful job” on The Plains.

“It took him some time to get it going, like anywhere,” Howland said. They’ve had really good players. At the end of the day, it comes down to players.”

And Auburn has plenty of good ones, including “probably the top front line in America” in Howland’s estimation. Freshman forward Jabari Smith leads the Tigers in scoring with 16.6 points per game and grabs nearly seven rebounds per contest.

Smith is a top prospect for the 2022 NBA draft, and Howland said his game will translate excellently to the next level.

“Jabari Smith’s the No. 1 pick in the draft,” Howland said. “I don’t think there’s any question. He’s going to score every night, 82 times a year. He shoots it incredibly for a guy with that kind of length and size.”

No one on Auburn’s roster has more length and size than center Walker Kessler, though. Kessler, a transfer from North Carolina, stands 7-foot-2 and averages a nation-leading 4.7 blocks per game.

With no one that tall on Mississippi State’s roster, Howland joked the Bulldogs had recruited former NBA star Manute Bol, who stands 7-foot-7, to play the role of Kessler in practice. Even the broomsticks MSU coaches sometimes use to contest shots can’t replicate the Auburn big man.

“Everyone is trying to drive and go at him, and they’re learning very quickly he’s really athletic,” Howland said. “He blocks everything. He’s a guy who is difficult to contend with, and that’s one of the big reasons they’re so good defensively. They can go out and pressure, and if anybody gets beat, they’ve got him sitting there ready to swat a shot.”

Thanks to guards K.D. Johnson and Wendell Green, Auburn is a relatively balanced team with an offense and defense both ranking inside the top-20 nationally. The Tigers are not a great 3-point shooting team, but they make up for it on the offensive glass and by limiting turnovers. On defense, only three teams hold opponents to a worse shooting percentage inside the arc than Auburn does. The Tigers’ defense is the eighth-best unit in the country, and Mississippi State has struggled of late against elite defensive teams.

So it won’t be easy for the Bulldogs to pull off a win they need desperately against a team well prepared to refute them.

“They’ve just got a lot of talent,” Howland said. “They play really hard.”

Dawg notes

Guard Rocket Watts is out for the rest of the regular season with a “pretty good” elbow sprain. The Michigan State transfer is still hurting from the injury and saw a doctor Monday. He has not played since Feb. 12 against LSU.

Howland said Watts’ status for the SEC tournament is uncertain.

“We’ll see how he heals,” Howland said.

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.