STARKVILLE — Mississippi State assistant coach Jake Jacoby had run the numbers and was fairly certain the Bulldogs had done enough to earn a national seed and host an NCAA regional.
It didn’t take long into Monday’s selection show for him to be proven right. When Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee and Alabama State — all within 400 miles of Starkville, following the rule the NCAA uses to build the bracket — were revealed as part of the No. 16 seed’s regional, the suspense regarding who would be hosting those teams was quickly extinguished.
“I just try to stay over here in my lane, try to stay focused on the process and what we can control, and I try to also share that mentality with my team,” MSU head coach Matt Roberts said. “Some of them like to look that up and some like to know, and some don’t. My assistant (Jacoby), he has to know all those things. He loves it. He’s a numbers guy, and I respect that he likes to know that because it also gives us a gauge on where we are if we do want to know that.”
The Bulldogs’ win over Florida State back in January held staying power throughout the season and looked even better when the Seminoles won the ACC Tournament, helping Roberts’ team still earn a top-16 seed even after an upset loss to South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
MSU’s path to the Sweet 16 is a familiar one. As the No. 15 seed last year, the Bulldogs defeated Alabama State at home in the first round, then defeated Middle Tennessee 4-2 in the second round to advance to the round of 16, where No. 2 seed TCU ended their season. Middle Tennessee got some revenge on MSU with a 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs in early February in Murfreesboro.
“I got even happier seeing Middle Tennessee on our side of the draw,” senior Carles Hernandez said. “I really want another opportunity against them. We have Alabama State first, which is going to be probably a challenging match, but hopefully we’ll get through it. We’re looking forward to playing one of those teams, Georgia Tech or Middle Tennessee, and it’s going to be a great match for sure.”
MSU (17-7) is making its 13th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and has now made it in each of Roberts’ 10 full seasons as head coach. Seniors Hernandez and Nemanja Malesevic will now have another opportunity to play at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre after they were honored on Senior Day before the Bulldogs’ match against Tennessee on Apr. 5.
When MSU takes the court Friday afternoon against the SWAC champion Hornets (14-3), it will have been two full weeks since the Bulldogs’ last match. Roberts has emphasized conditioning during the time off, even taking the team to the research park for sprints and hill workouts.
“We had a really tough week of practice,” Roberts said. “The guys are putting in a lot of work. They’re doing an individual (workout) in the morning twice a week and they’re doing three to four hours in the afternoon, so they’re pretty much hitting their 20 hours a week. Last week they had six full days of practice, so it was tough. We’ll slow it down a little bit this week, get into more point play and sharpen up for the weekend.”
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