Mississippi State basketball ends losing skid, thumps Tulane in neutral court win

ATLANTA — The ball bounced around in a sea of bodies underneath Mississippi State’s basket at State Farm Arena until it graciously landed in the hands of the Bulldogs’ Jimmy Bell Jr. for an easy put-back.

At that point, with seven minutes to play in the first half and Mississippi State’s 106-76 win already in hand, all Tulane coach Ron Hunter could do was spin and flail his body in disbelief.

It was an afternoon where everything went the Bulldogs’ way, highlighted by a 10-of-17 3-point shooting clip in the first half, and Hunter knew it. Nothing he tried was going to slow down an MSU team looking for vengeance.

The trip to Atlanta marked Mississippi State’s first action since last Sunday’s collapse against a woeful Southern team. Coach Chris Jans noted the stain that loss would leave on MSU’s resume, but he stressed on Tuesday that opportunities to make that defeat no matter loomed.

Tulane (6-2) presented the first chance, and Mississippi State (7-2) took advantage. The Bulldogs trounced a top-100 KenPom team in what could wind up being a Quadrant 2 victory.

Josh Hubbard ignites MSU

MSU freshman Josh Hubbard checked into the game with 16:19 to play in the first half and wasted little time adding to his All-SEC campaign. He got his scoring started with a four-point play less than two minutes later.

Over the span of the first half’s final seven minutes, he connected on another four 3-pointers en route to a 22-point outing.

Hubbard’s hot start highlighted a first half with 62 points 66% shooting in the opening period. The number thumped MSU’s previous season-high of 41 first-half points.

Mississippi State surpassed 100 points for the first time since a 2018 win against BYU.

What the win means for Mississippi State

Back-to-back losses against Georgia Tech and Southern last week dipped Mississippi State outside the KenPom top 30 for the first time since the preseason.

However, the win against Tulane got MSU’s resume back in the right direction. The victory is the fourth against a top-100 KenPom team on a neutral court (Arizona State, Washington State, Northwestern).

MSU had just three nonconference wins of that variety last season – a slate that saw the Bulldogs land among the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament field.

Mississippi State entered Saturday as a No. 8 seed in ESPN’s latest bracketology.

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Mississippi State’s upcoming schedule

MSU returns to Humphrey Coliseum on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network+) for a matchup with Murray State. MSU has nonconference games against North Texas, Rutgers and Bethune-Cookman remaining this month before SEC play starts in January.

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.