MSU Men’s Basketball Ranked 9th in the SEC by Matt Norlander

The #SECTipoff17 starts today, and that means we finally get to talk more and more about basketball and less and less about football. That’s both good and bad. It’s good because we get to forget about football. It’s bad because I like football but everything about football this year is bad so this actually isn’t bad that we’re moving on. Weird how that works out.

Anyway, with the men’s team attending #SECTipoff17 today, that means that there’s going to be plenty of attention paid to the team and everything abut them. There’s a lot of questions surrounding the men’s basketball team this season. There’s also a lot of cautious optimism from fans and media members. One such media member, Matt Norlander of CBS Sports ranked every team in college basketball. All 351 of them.

Mississippi State came in at 89 on the overall list, which may seem a little low to some fans, but is actually probably about right. At least it’s about right for the moment. While this is an incredibly talented team, it also is one of the youngest teams in college basketball. But they’re going to be led by a star in Quinndary Weatherspoon, and Norlander notes that:

Your name to know is Quinndary Weatherspoon, who is the most underrated player in the SEC. More recruits on the way here. I'm going to "hold" on my Howland stock here until I see dividends pay off, though. Some think this is a top-50 team in the country. I can't be that aggressive yet.

But, as low as that ranking may seem, because #SECBasketballFever is an epidemic, there’s several other SEC teams that are not far off from Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs will have plenty of opportunities to prove Norlander, and others wrong. They’re one of the most talented teams in the Southeastern Conference, but they can’t let youth get in the way of that talent if they want to win at a high level this year. They’ll need to develop and mature quickly before conference play starts.