When Mississippi State men’s basketball head coach Chris Jans took to the podium on Sunday evening, he reflected the same sentiment as the week prior.
Heading into the Southeastern Conference tournament, the message was to find a way to win in Nashville, and the Bulldogs did, defeating Florida, 69-68, in overtime in the second round.
That mindset has now transitioned to a new endeavor as Mississippi State was one of 68 teams selected to make the NCAA tournament on Sunday, taking on Pittsburgh in the First Four on Tuesday. Tipoff is 8:10 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on truTV.
“We’re going dancing,” Jans said. “That was the ultimate goal that we’ve had since we arrived. It’s something we talked about since Day 1 that it wasn’t about trying to build a program, it was about building a team each and every year with the goal of playing in the NCAA tournament.”
March Madness is a place familiar to the first-year head coach for the Bulldogs (21-12) as before heading to Starkville, he took New Mexico State to the tournament three times.
Including those years, this will be the fourth trip for Jans to the Big Dance in the last six years.
“Certainly back then, it sounded good, but how realistic was it for most people,” Jans said. “I know the people in our room believed in it. They worked their tail off and now, they’re rewarded for playing in the greatest show on earth.”
It will be a quick turnaround for Mississippi State as the team heads to Dayton for a matchup on Tuesday with the Panthers (22-11), a team that finished fifth in the ACC with a 13-5 record, but one that has struggled to end the season, losing four of their last seven.
They make for an interesting matchup for the Bulldogs, especially with their 3-point shooting, currently shooting 36 percent from beyond the arc on nearly 26 attempts a game.
The Bulldogs have struggled to defend from the perimeter this season and struggled to make shots from deep, but the sentiment on Sunday was not one of immediate preparation for Tuesday, but one of jubilation.
“It was a sigh of relief seeing our name get called,” junior forward Cam Matthews said. “I’m just grateful for all my teammates, coaches and God. Everything just played out the right way. … I feel like it would have been nice to have a bye, but I’m just grateful to still be in. We got great coaches. So, we’re going to wait on them to game prep and get ready for Pitt.”
There was reasonable doubt on whether Mississippi State would be in the NCAA tournament field. After starting out the season 11-1 in its non-conference schedule, the Bulldogs limped to a 1-7 start to SEC play before turning the season around with a 7-3 effort down the stretch and a win in the conference tournament.
“We always go back to that stint when we were losing a lot of games in the beginning of the SEC,” redshirt senior forward Tolu Smith said. “During that time, we just got a lot closer. I would say, for me personally, regardless of what was going to happen, that it was just going to come for us. Just stayed praying and stayed working. I thought what we have now was going to happen eventually.”
Smith, an All-SEC First Team selection, was the backbone of the Bulldogs, averaging 15.8 points and 8.5 rebounds per game this season. His layup with 4.1 seconds remaining in overtime against Florida on Thursday won Mississippi State the game and kept the Bulldogs alive on the bubble.
“It’s a great feeling to have everybody watching,” Smith said of playing in the NCAA tournament. “Why wouldn’t you want everybody to watch your game and put Mississippi State (back) on the map? To show everyone what we’ve been working on and what we can do.”
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