Power conference teams will meet in the 8-vs-9 matchup in the East Region of this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Baylor Bears and Mississippi State Bulldogs both earned at-large bids for this year’s tournament. They will look to prove that they deserved those bids by beating one another in this matchup from Raleigh, NC, where the winner will likely face the Duke Blue Devils in the second round.
Sports betting sites have listed this game as a pick ’em, with both teams at -110 odds to come away with a win. The total for this contest has been set at 143.5 points, as plenty of scoring is expected. Here, we break down Baylor vs Mississippi State and make our pick for this matchup between teams that will relish the chance to face Duke in the next round.
Baylor Looks to Win Big 12 vs SEC Showdown
The Baylor Bears went 19-14 this season and finished in seventh place in the Big 12. Still, they got an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of playing a brutal schedule. Baylor played the 10th toughest schedule in college basketball this season according to Kenpom and they were rewarded for that, as they look to get a win here and justify their inclusion in this year’s tournament.
Some of Baylor’s quality wins this season include a buzzer-beater to defeat St. John’s, along with wins over Arkansas and Kansas, who qualified for the tournament themselves. While Baylor lost two of its last three games prior to this tournament, those two losses came against top-10 teams in Houston and Texas Tech. Baylor will hope that being battle tested will prepare them for this game against a team from a similarly deep conference.
Will SEC Experience Have Mississippi State Tourney Ready?
Mississippi State had a losing record in SEC play this season. But a team with a losing conference record getting an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament just speaks to how good the SEC was this year. After going 1-1 in the SEC tournament, the Bulldogs will look to get a win in the opening round of March Madness and to prove that they were worthy of getting an at-large bid.
For the Bulldogs, the key to this game will be the efficiency of Josh Hubbard’s performance. Hubbard leads the Bulldogs in scoring this season at 18.7 points per game. However, he is shooting a shade under 40% to get to that number. He will need to be more efficient from the field if Mississippi State is going to get a win here and move into the second round of the tournament.
Baylor vs Mississippi State Prediction
Baylor (-110) over Mississippi State
220K Gold Coins & 10 FREE Sweeps Coins
Claim Bonus - Baylor played a tougher non-conference schedule than Mississippi State, better preparing them for a tournament like this one.
- Baylor is very good at slowing games down and they should be able to control the action and gain the upper hand that way.
