Mississippi State men’s basketball begins the final stretch of the 2025-26 season this weekend, and they’ll need to start picking up wins if they want to extend their campaign any further into March.
The Bulldogs (11-11, 3-6 SEC) have lost six of their last seven games after starting the new year with back-to-back wins, and currently sit in 13th in the conference standings. A shaky start to the season with five nonconference losses is beginning to take a toll on the team’s postseason chances. Current bracketology projections have MSU as a “Last Four In” team for the NIT.
With nine regular-season games remaining, the team is running low on opportunities to turn its fortunes around and will have to start their run against ranked opposition.
Up next
MSU’s next opponent is No. 21 Arkansas. Fresh off their own bye week, the Razorbacks (16-6, 6-3 SEC) are in a similar boat as the Bulldogs. After a loss to forget last weekend, the team had a couple of days off to move on and get ready for the trip to Starkville.
“I’m not very deep into them. It’s our bye week, but Coach Cal will always have an uber-talented team,” Jans said on Monday. “I’ve seen them just briefly, cross-referencing when you get into scout mode, but I’m simple-minded that way. I just watch the team that we’re about to play and really don’t pay too much attention to the other SEC teams. I try to keep my focus on that particular team, but they’re very talented.”
Razorback guard Darius Acuff Jr. was named to the Bob Cousy Award Midseason watchlist for his play, scoring a team-high 20.3 points per game and shooting 40.8% from three-point range.
His high hit-rate from beyond the arc is only narrowly the highest of the team’s top shooters. Backcourt partner Meleek Thomas is shooting 39.1% from distance while forward Trevon Brazille and rotational guards D.J. Wagner and Karter Knox are both hitting better than 34%.
“Their guard out front, Acuff, is one of the best freshmen in the country,” Jans said. “He’s obviously a high-level player, but they’ve got a bunch of them. They’ve got two handfuls, or close to it, that are great players. They’re having a really good season, and unfortunately for us, they’re coming off a tough loss at home. But just like us, they’re in their bye week as well.”
Jans didn’t offer much in terms of a scouting report of Arkansas, mostly because he hadn’t had the chance to dive into it himself, but aside from the obvious talent in the team, he also put focus on the new life in John Calipari’s career since moving from Lexington to Fayetteville.
“From watching him, competing against him at Kentucky and now at Arkansas, certainly in no position to speak for him, but outside looking in, he seemed rejuvenated,” Jans said. “He seems like he’s got a different bounce to his step. I think the change, I would imagine he would say, has been good for him at this point in his career. They had a heck of a run down the stretch of the SEC and then the NCAA tournament after a rough start, and this year they’ve reloaded and got a heck of a basketball team.”
Despite the rejuvenation, Calipari’s team has had a rollercoaster season on the court. The Razorbacks have picked up big wins over Louisville, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt, but they’ve also taken tough losses to Michigan State, Duke, Houston, Auburn, Georgia, and most recently, Kentucky.
“They out-toughed us,” Calipari said to the media after the loss to the Wildcats, pointing to rebounding numbers and missed free throws. “When you get in this kind of game and get rattled a bit, that’s the kind of stuff that happens.”
It’s not a case of one of the SEC’s most dominant teams coming to Starkville, as Arkansas has its flaws. But the Bulldogs have a lot to prove if they’re to take advantage of those on Saturday.
Reigniting the offense
Most important to the team’s chances is the play of Josh Hubbard and Jayden Epps on the attacking end. The pair struggled in MSU’s 1-6 slump over the past month, but both recorded 20-plus points for the first time since the win against Texas on Jan. 3 in the loss to Mizzou last Saturday. Hubbard’s 20-point second half was nearly enough to bring the Bulldogs back from a 16-point deficit against the Tigers.
“(Hubbard) always stays confident, and you have to. You’ve got to erase the miss and get to the next play or get to the next shot,” Jans said of the team’s leader on the floor. “He’s shown everybody that’s paid attention that he’s able to do that, but they’re all human. He was frustrated and had a back spasm there toward the end of the half that I don’t think anybody knew, and he really worked on it at halftime. He felt much better in the second half. Then, like Josh Hubbard does, he made some tough shots and got us back in the game.”
Hubbard is still averaging 20.8 points per game and is not the reason MSU has struggled this campaign, but he will be needed at his best if the team is to record an upset on Saturday.
The Bulldogs and Razorbacks will tip off at Humphrey Coliseum at 11 a.m. Saturday. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
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