Mississippi State vs Alabama Preview: Do the Bulldogs Have Any Shot at an Upset?

Alabama vs Mississippi State: College Basketball Game Preview

Alabama is in the NCAA Tournament. The only question is whether or not it's a 1 seed or a 2.

Mississippi State is in the NCAA Tournament. The only question is whether or not it's pushing for a 4 - or a 3 with a huge next three weeks - or drop into the 8/9 abyss. Actually, there's another question. Can Mississippi State really beat an elite team on the road?

Bama came up with a strong win over Kentucky after suffering losses to Auburn and Missouri, and now this is a bit of a must-win situation if there's any dream of being a 1. And why?

At Tennessee, Florida, at Auburn.

Lose this, and there's a reasonable shot the Tide could sink into a 3 or even lower.

Mississippi State's defense didn't make the trip to Oklahoma in a 93-87 loss. With LSU, Texas, and at Arkansas to close, win here, and the team might go on a run.

Alabama vs Mississippi State: How To Watch

Date: Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Game Time: 9:00 pm ET
How To Watch: ESPN2
Venue: Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, AL
Teams: Mississippi State (19-8), Alabama (22-5)
Fiu Bluesky

Why Mississippi State Will Win

You know that defense thing the Bulldogs did in wins over Ole Miss and Texas A&M? Yeah, do more of that.

They played with an extra energy, an extra confidence, and for those two games they played like a team that could actually be more than an NPC come tournament time.

The defense is good enough, the rebounding has been solid, and from out of nowhere the free throw shooting has been off the charts over the last few games hitting 26-of-42.

It's just this simple. SLOW THIS (bleep) DOWN, Bulldogs.

Ball control. Extra pass. There's no need to go four corners or anything, but they can't get into any sort of a track meet. The team is 0-6 when allowing more than 84 points and 2-7 when giving up more than 79. They have the three-point defense to keep the Tide sharpshooters from getting into a groove, and ...

Why Alabama Will Win

Mississippi State can't help itself.

It didn't exactly gear down in the 88-84 loss to the Tide back on January 29th, but it managed to play well in the flow of the game and still lost.

The problem with that is Alabama sucks teams in. It can D up once in a while, but once those threes start dropping, teams panic, they take the easy twos, and that's it. They're in the trap.

As far as that keeping teams under 80 thing with Mississippi State, forget about it. Alabama has only failed to score 80 points three times, and two of those games were in November and the other was against an Ole Miss team that committed to the bit and ground the game down to a halt.

The patience won't be there for Mississippi State for a full 40 minutes.

Alabama vs Mississippi State: Who Will Win?

It's possible Mississippi State can pull this off, but there's a problem with that. The energy and suffocating style that worked in the wins over Ole Miss and Texas A&M won't fly here.

The Rebels and Aggies couldn't figure it out and hid under the covers. Alabama will simply speed things up. It'll take a miserable shooting day from the Tide to lose this, but it's possible Mississippi State forces just that.

This will be close and fun for about 25 minutes, and then Alabama will hit three threes, and that will be that.

Alabama vs Mississippi State Prediction

Alabama 86, Mississippi State 78