There wasn’t much happening in college basketball over the holidays, but that didn’t stop Mississippi State from moving up the latest AP and Coaches Poll top 25 rankings for Week 9.
The SEC as a whole continues to dominate with Tennessee, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Texas A&M still ranked ahead of the Bulldogs, and now conference play is about to kick in once the new year starts.
For now, Miss State is getting the respect for its 11-1 record, win over Memphis – who just beat Ole Miss to move up to 21 in the AP poll and 25 in the Coaches – and thanks to the metrics.
The Bulldogs were 19th last week in the AP and got up to 17 without having to do anything. It pushed up to 16 from 19 in the Coaches Poll.
(Meanwhile, Ole Miss dropped from 16 to 24 in the AP and from 14 to 23 – and in a huge whiff, ahead of Memphis – in the Coaches.)
The Dawgs move up in both polls! #HailState🐶 pic.twitter.com/RgQgRZ8EAd
— Mississippi State Men’s Basketball (@HailStateMBK) December 30, 2024
On the flip side, though, Mississippi State actually went down a bit in the NCAA’s NET Rankings, going from 12 last week to 14 because Oregon and Illinois went up, but whatever – that doesn’t factor in Gonzaga’s loss to UCLA as much as it should.
And then there are the Kenpom Rankings. Mississippi State was 34th last week, but helped by that Memphis win it moved up to 21st as of Monday.
Don’t get comfortable with any of these rankings, though – they’ll go up and down wildly very soon. The Bulldogs are good enough to keep winning over the next few weeks – and the rankings should move up – but the meat of the SEC season is going to be a bear.
At the very least, for now, there’s a whole lot to get fired up about.
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