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I’m a lifelong Mississippi State fan. Year after year I hope and hope for the Bulldogs to be really good at something. Football. Basketball. Baseball. It turns out my eggs have been put in the wrong basket. Mississippi State University is not currently really good at women’s basketball. They’re historically great.
On March 26, 2016 the Bulldogs were embarrassed by UConn in the Sweet 16, losing by 60 points. For a team that was seemingly on the rise, this still felt like a low-point. They got beat by a larger margin than Robert Morris did when they faced UConn as a 16-seed the previous weekend. However, things have turned around quite a bit since then.
The team has been dominant.
Since that loss in the 2016 tournament, the Lady Bulldogs are 50-5 (a .909 win percentage). That is second only to UConn since the beginning of the 2016-2017 season. The 50 wins is more than any other team in the country and 2 more than UConn’s 48. The team dominance is more than just impressive. It is on par with the elite programs across all of college sports. You can see below where the Bulldogs rank among all football and basketball programs since the start of the seasons that began in 2016 (Percentages of games played up until 01/05/2018).
Win Percentages Since 2016
| Rank | Team | Win Percentage | Sport |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Win Percentage | Sport |
| 1 | UConn (AAC) | 0.980 | NCAAW |
| 2 | Alabama (SEC) | 0.929 | NCAAF |
| 3 | Mississippi St. (SEC) | 0.909 | NCAAW |
| 4 | Gonzaga (WCC) | 0.909 | NCAAM |
| 5 | Notre Dame (ACC) | 0.904 | NCAAW |
| 6 | Baylor (Big 12) | 0.902 | NCAAW |
| 7 | Maryland (Big Ten) | 0.902 | NCAAW |
| 8 | South Carolina (SEC) | 0.902 | NCAAW |
| 9 | Villanova (Big East) | 0.900 | NCAAM |
| 10 | Clemson (ACC) | 0.897 | NCAAF |
| 11 | Saint Mary's (CA) (WCC) | 0.860 | NCAAM |
| 12 | Wichita St. (AAC) | 0.860 | NCAAM |
| 13 | Wisconsin (Big Ten) | 0.857 | NCAAF |
| 14 | Louisville (ACC) | 0.852 | NCAAW |
| 15 | Ohio St. (Big Ten) | 0.852 | NCAAF |
The Bulldogs have won a higher percentage of their games than Villanova and Duke on the men’s side. They’ve won more than football powerhouses Clemson, Ohio St., and Oklahoma. So far this season, they haven’t just been winning, they’ve been destroying the opposition. They’ve scored over 100 points in a quarter of their games with an average margin of victory of 32.1 points, third best in the nation. That’s up from an average scoring margin of 18.3 last season.
The players are superstars
Teaira McCowan has been a force in her junior season. She’s recorded a double-double in 11 of the team’s 16 games. That’s the fourth most in the country. She’s 31st nationally in points per game, 8th in rebounds per game, and 6th in field goal percentage. Victoria Vivians is the 28th leading scorer in the nation. Along with those 20.4 points, she’s adding 6.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. She’s also the only player in the country to be her school’s sitting homecoming queen. Morgan William is averaging almost 5 assists per game and has made the most clutch shot in the history of all of college basketball.
Looking for that national championship
In 2013 baseball made it to the College World Series championship series and came up short against UCLA. In 2014, football rose to number 1 in the country before fading down the stretch. Last year, the Lady Bulldogs made it to the national championship only to fall to South Carolina. This year, most of that team is back and they’ve already shown that they’re better than last season. If you want to witness Mississippi State’s first championship in person, book your tickets to Columbus now. Mississippi State is an elite program and adding a title this spring will make them an all-time great.