Starting Friday in Little Rock, Arkansas, which will play host to this year’s SEC women’s basketball tournament, the No. 3 seeded Mississippi State University Bulldogs will look to pad their case for a top four seed in the NCAA Tournament.
With a double-round bye, the Bulldogs will play their first game around 8 p.m. Friday night, and with the extra time to prepare, MSU should be ready to play come game time. Its quarterfinal opponent will be determined once sixth-seeded Kentucky faces off against the winner of 11th seeded Vanderbilt and 14th seeded Alabama. Unfortunately for MSU, two of the three teams it could face hold a win over the Bulldogs this season.
In the Bulldogs’ previous match up with the Kentucky Wildcats, MSU lost a double-overtime affair 92-90 in Lexington, in which it had numerous opportunities to walk away victorious. Kentucky enters the tournament ranked No. 12, according to the AP top 25 poll and momentum after upsetting No. 2 South Carolina to end the season. The Wildcats possess a multitude of talented players capable of sending the Bulldogs home early if everything clicks come game time.
During the Feb. 12 meeting between thesetwo teams, MSU freshman Victoria Vivians put forth her best performance of the season, scoring 31 points and knocking down five three-pointers. It was announced on Tuesday she was selected to the All-Freshman team as well as Second Team All-SEC. Vivians has improved all season long and continues to get better, and Head Coach Vic Schaefer said there is no situation his young freshman standout cannot handle at this point in her development.
“You’re talking about a kid that’s taken every big shot in her career. This girl has been through a lot,” Schaefer said. “There’s not anything she’s going to be uncomfortable doing for me.”
As for the other two schools that have the potential to meet the Bulldogs in the quarterfinals, Vanderbilt and Alabama made valiant efforts against MSU in the regular season, with Vanderbilt actually handing MSU its   first loss of the season. The Bulldogs would later get their revenge at Humphrey Coliseum, knocking off the Commodores 69-44 in what turned out to be one of their most complete wins of the season.
Whoever it is the Bulldogs end up facing in the quarterfinals, Schaefer fancies his team’s chances of making a deep run in the tournament and pointed to its earned ranking as a factor that should breed confidence in his squad.
“(You have) South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi State. I feel pretty good about that, and I feel awfully proud of these kids for getting us (the No. 3 seed),” he said. “We still haven’t played our best basketball yet. I think we play hard but were still not playing great. If we ever get it up and going, I really like our chances any night.”
Finally, Schaefer said he thinks this team has done enough to have already earned that distinction, which would mean  Humphrey Coliseum could be a host site in two weeks’ time.
“I don’t think we have to prove a thing. I think the proof is in the pudding,” Schaefer said. “We’re two free throws away from being 13-3 in the league – one against Kentucky and the other against LSU. I just don’t know how you find enough fault with the third place team in the SEC and not give them a top 16 seed.”