Selection Sunday was the one-year anniversary of Sam Purcell taking the women’s basketball head coaching job at Mississippi State. In his Monday press conference, he took a moment to reflect on that time and the journey since, as well as the team’s mantra from day one: “Why not us?”

“To think about it, I was here a year ago,” Purcell said, “and we were talking about where the program was and where we wanted to go, and for us to get back in the NCAA tournament in year one. But most importantly, I just couldn’t be more excited for our young women. We came together, we brought back the returners, we brought in some great people, we looked in the room and we said: Why not us?”

Mississippi State women’s basketball (20-10) will play in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019, earning an 11-seed in the Greenville Region and a play-in game with fellow 11-seed Illinois on Wednesday in South Bend, Indiana. Tipoff is 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

If the Bulldogs win, they will face No. 6 seed Creighton on Friday in the tournament’s first round.

Preseason expectations were less than optimistic for MSU in Purcell’s first season at the helm. Media voters picked the Bulldogs to finish eighth in the Southeastern Conference and bracketologists thought they would be among the first four out of the NCAA tournament.

They beat the projections on both counts, finishing fifth in the SEC and joining the Big Dance as one of the last four in.

Both Mississippi State men’s and women’s teams are First Four play-in teams, and while Purcell has a day more than Chris Jans to get his team prepared they are still on a tight schedule. 

“It’s interesting to say the least,” he said of the scouting process with only two days and change to travel and prepare for Illinois. “Obviously we found out late (Sunday) night. My staff is unbelievable. We were already in the war room. I had two tables at my house, one for the players to eat and the other one had laptops for my coaching staff to go to work.”

The coaches watched some film on Illinois after the selection was announced, met Monday morning with the team, and then got on a plane at 2 p.m. to head up to South Bend. There was little time to dwell on the selection with how soon their next game is, but the Bulldogs have done plenty of waiting around the past week following their ouster from last week’s SEC tournament at the hands of Texas A&M.

Purcell viewed the 79-72 loss to the Aggies as a March Madness learning experience, and he wants that to stick with his players as they try to survive and advance. 

“The beautiful thing about women’s basketball is there’s a lot of parity,” Purcell said. “I talked about Texas A&M before we went. That’s a different team. They battled injuries, Janiah Barker was voted the No. 1 player in the country in some polls. She was out, she was back, they were clicking at the right time, and our team had to learn that each possession matters. 

“And then obviously you want to avoid bad quarters,” he added. “When you look back on that game we had a bad second quarter, and sometimes you need moments like that so you can make special things happen later. So hopefully we can come out, we can look back when we talk after the game here at Illinois and say you know what? We learned a lot from that Texas A&M game.”

They will need that wisdom on Wednesday.

Illinois (22-9), like MSU, is led by a first-year head coach, Shauna Green. The team is making its first tournament appearance since 2003, anchored by First Team All-Big Ten guard Makira Cook. who averaged 18 points and 4 assists.

While not having much to celebrate in recent years, the team turned heads with an upset win over then-No. 2 Iowa on its way to its first 20-win season since 2008.

Still, Purcell believes the stars may be aligning for his team to make some noise in South Bend.

“Do you know the name of the arena?,” he asked the press Monday. “Purcell Pavilion, so I absolutely love it. I love fate, just like I told you, in the NCAA tournament. For me the biggest game of my life was Mississippi State and Louisville in the NCAA tournament (Final Four matchup in 2018), and then now guess what? My first game coaching in the NCAA tournament is in the Purcell Pavilion. It’s funny how life works out.”