For the second time in three years under head coach Sam Purcell, Mississippi State is bound for the NCAA Tournament.

The Bulldogs were selected as a No. 9 seed and will play No. 8 seed California in the first round in Los Angeles on Friday. If MSU advances to the second round, it will likely face No. 1 seed USC on Monday.

After narrowly missing out on last year’s tournament following a late-season slide, MSU (21-11) finished just 7-9 in Southeastern Conference play, but the strength of the SEC, combined with a strong non-conference season, helped the Bulldogs get in. MSU earned a key early-season win over Utah, and its best SEC win was at home against Oklahoma in January.

This is the Bulldogs’ 13th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, highlighted by back-to-back trips to the national championship game in 2017 and 2018 under Vic Schaefer. MSU reached the second round in 2023, Purcell’s first year in Starkville.

Fifth-year senior guard Jerkaila Jordan leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 16 points per game and was named to the all-SEC second team. Eniya Russell and Madina Okot are also in double figures on average. Okot, in her first year playing college basketball in the United States after transferring from Kenya, also pulls down 9.6 rebounds per game.

The Golden Bears, in their first year in the ACC following the breakup of the Pac-12, are 25-8 overall and 12-6 in ACC play. Cal has wins over SEC programs Auburn and Alabama, and all five of its starters average at least 11 points per game. The Golden Bears are thin on depth, however, with very little scoring production from their bench.