Dawg83

State should probably handle Hofstra, who was a bad CAA team last year. Ole Miss gets Nevada, who was a solid Mountain West team last year but I doubt OM has many issues. But a tougher opponent than State opens with. USM actually has a pretty big opening series. UC Santa Barbara coming to Hattiesburg. Pretty consistent 35-40 win Regional team that has made it to Omaha in the last decade. Strong opening opponent.

My money is on whatever judge they found to hear the case in Calhoun County, MS being sympathetic to his cause.

Would be a huge win for Purcell if he made the tourney with this team. I do not think expectations were very high going into the season.

Haven’t watched a ton of non- State or OM hoops this year but seems like a down year for the SEC overall. By no means the worst SEC ever, we all lived through the late 2000’s and early to mid 2010’s….. but just nobody that seems like a national title contender in the least, if we are being honest. State and OM are hardly the only two teams that have underwhelmed.

My biggest takeaway from that game is there will be a coaching vacancy in Baton Rouge soon.

Jans oversaw this mess of a team and it’s on him to fix it. But he built up enough equity prior to this season to where he will (and deservedly should) get the opportunity to fix it next season. I’ve made my stance known that if they continue to be terrible next season, it may be time to make a hard decision. But I also tend to trust Jans’ career track record and believe this year is likely a one year outlier rather than the new normal for him.

I’m sure Ole Miss will be ranked pretty highly going into next year if Chambliss is able to return. We will see what things look like long term with Golding, but in Year 1 he certainly shouldn’t have a bad roster. Mixed bag on State’s portal class. I think they greatly improved the quality of their depth. A ton of SEC and P4 transfers in, which is a step up from the last couple of years where they were hoping and praying guys from the G5 or FCS worked out for them. I’m not sure they added many instant impact, sure fire starter types though. The line of scrimmage is what defined State’s 2025, I don’t think 2026 will be any different. Either some guys take clear steps forward or State will struggle to top 3-4 wins with that schedule.

Bout time for both teams to break the huddle with “1-2-3 NIT”

It’s the most amazing rise to prominence in modern college football history and I don’t think it’s particularly close. Again, this program went 3-9 two years ago. Two wins worse than Zach Arnett’s MSU team. And they just went 16-0 and won it all two years later.

If they stink again next year I think it would be a hot seat for him and pressure to produce in 2027-2028. State let Howland have seven years and he made one NCAAT. They’re not gonna run Jans off in four or five years after he made the tourney in each of his first three years.

It’s fair to blame him for the season. He didn’t assemble a very good roster and that falls on him. His seat still isn’t hot. Not even close.

What I would say to State fans about Jans is you don’t get to have it both ways. State people treat men’s basketball like the red headed step child that’s only there to kill time until baseball opening weekend, but then think a coach who’s never missed the NCAAT until this season isn’t any good after one down year. The anti-Jans contingent is either too young to remember 2012 or they’ve forgotten the hard lessons learned with that debacle of a coaching search, but running off a coach like Jans is how you end up with the Rick Ray’s of the world. Is Jans an elite coach? No probably not. But he’s above average for dang sure, and it’d be way easier for State to downgrade from Jans than upgrade.

I didn’t think Ole Miss played particularly well either but Beard was wise to utilize the size advantage his guards had. Beard’s an excellent coach. I don’t see either of these teams making the tournament. But I think both are in solid hands as long as their current coach is there.

Nope. Maybe it’s a conversation if they stink next year too. But a men’s basketball coach at State that’s about to miss the NCAAT for the first time in 4 years isn’t on the hot seat.

That kinda feels like season over for State. I don’t think this team is finishing above .500 overall. Just not a very good roster and super dependent on Hubbard and Epps… When teams can limit those guys like OM did tonight, it’s brutal watch. I am not trying to be overly dramatic here, but looking at the remaining schedule, I’m not overly confident State gets to 5 league wins. I sensed this early in the season and the way it’s played out, I still feel the same… Jans just whiffed on this portal group. It’s as simple as that. Good coaches have bad years and Jans is a good coach and this is a bad year. He’s either got to do a much better job of evaluation with portal additions for next year, or they’ve really got to nail the development on some of these freshmen and incoming high school signees. Very good week for OM with back to back road wins. They’ve still got work to do to make it back to the bubble but they’re moving in the right direction after a rough start to the season.

This first half has felt like watching an SEC game from circa 2013 which is not an era of SEC hoops you want to be compared to. Dear gosh that was an ugly half.

I lean State at home but it won’t be an upset at all if OM wins. I view OM as the slightly better team. I guess I’m kinda leaning into Jans’ track record against OM (5-1). I suspect the teams split the two games this year.

Also still cannot get over the fact that BOC is younger than Lemonis. He’s a 54 year old that can pass for 70 lol.

There is definitely a quality with O’Connor where his teams have at times started slow and then heated up in May and June. He’s had teams that were high end national seeds too, but his 2015 national title team and the 2021 team that played State in Omaha both got in as 3 seeds. Believe his first Omaha team that won a Super in Oxford in 2009 was a 2 seed. Won the ACC twice but both instances were around 15 years ago. So he gets to Omaha a lot but it’s not always the conventional path. I think there’s certainly a path to this State team having a situation like that, especially with the schedule. To me I think they’re really gonna be a good offense, and the trajectory overall just depends on how quickly those pitching roles get nailed down.

I think I agree and disagree on this. The portal is less crazy than football and hoops but it’s still a thing. Almost all of Virginia’s 2025 roster is playing for State or Tennessee this year. Ole Miss went and got one of the dudes from Murray State that was wearing them out in the regional. And yes there are some small schools that have shown they can compete (Coastal, USM, ECU types) but it’s still a pretty small number of teams. I believe 19 of the 25 in D1’s poll are SEC or ACC. The west coast has really lost some of its luster in terms of baseball (other than UCLA who is pressing number one and the two Oregon schools who are always around the host conversation now). We’ve lost a lot of formerly great baseball programs too in terms of relevance. You don’t hear much at all about Rice, Cal State Fullerton, Tulane anymore and there was a time where several schools like that were winning the whole thing. I think we’ve now had 7 of the last 8 national champs be from the SEC, and the only one of those 8 that wasn’t was the Arkansas team that was a missed pop fly from winning it all.

Still four weeks out from opening day but highly anticipated, especially this year. The Brian O’Connor era begins at State, and his first team has a ton of preseason hype. Preseason number 4 in the D1 baseball poll. A big mixture of returning guys + several key Virginia transfers + several other impact transfers and highly ranked freshmen. The lineup should be absolutely loaded, so much so that good players that have really produced in their college careers are going to be sitting on the bench. There are a couple of positions that are very much up for grabs but they seem to have plenty of options at most spots. Pitching staff is extremely talented but in many ways unproven. Expecting to see some combo of Valincius-McPherson-Foster starting on opening weekend, and we’ll see after that and on bullpen roles. All in all this team has pretty high year one expectations. You never know how long it takes a new regime to gel, and the SEC schedule for this team is nuts, but all the ingredients for there for this team to be one of the last few teams in Omaha, potentially. Doesn’t mean they will be, but the ceiling is certainly quite high. I’m very fascinated to see O’Connor in the SEC, his track record from Virginia speaks for itself. Was surprised to see Ole Miss unranked by D1 and think they probably should’ve been in the Top 25. Any game that a healthy Hunter Elliott is pitching in, I just kinda assume Ole Miss is probably winning it. I know they’ve got other key arms to replace and that will be a big deal. Lots of power returning in the lineup, can they do a better job of not being so boom or bust with the long ball? Last year it felt like all Ole Miss did was either strike out or hit a home run. I do think Bianco has rescued things for the most part after a couple of down years and will be pretty surprised if this group isn’t comparable to what they were last season, which probably would’ve been an Omaha team if not for them being in the wrong place at the wrong time having to play a scorching hot Murray State. USM is the most consistent team in the state over the last decade, and I’m going to believe that continues until it doesn’t. I felt pretty confident they’ll be in the hosting mix yet again. Can they finally make a return to Omaha? Can never rule it out with them, especially if they keep putting themselves in Supers and Regional finals… Eventually a breakthrough is bound to happen if you keep hanging around that stage. Don’t think Mississippi has ever had all three teams host a regional in one year (have had two plenty of times). Maybe this is the year it happens. Would be awesome for the state.

Um depends on which Stansbury teams you are referring to lol. His early 2000’s teams knew how to clamp down but by the end of his tenure he sho nuff learned how to blow big leads. Cost State a tourney bid at least twice. With this State team, I think it’s a talent issue. They clearly know how to throw a pretty solid first punch. But the fact that they fall apart like they have tells me that they aren’t talented enough to pivot away from Plan A successfully once other teams start to make adjustment. Jans will have to do a better job in the portal moving forward. This group is quite limited both offensively and defensively. I don’t know if this was just the best they could get or if he was just wrong on what he thought this group could be. But it’s been pretty clear to me since about Game 2 or 3 that this group is lacking in many more area than the last couple of State teams.

Second game in a row where State opens the game playing excellent basketball, builds a double digit lead, and then falls apart to lose in a blowout. This team still has a lot of problems.

Kind of a weird game. State started off great and was up 12 early in the first half…. Only to lose by 24. Certainly feels like State is Kentucky’s annual get right game at this point. And now we get to play the other Jans kryptonite on Tuesday with Bama coming to The Hump. Big home win for Ole Miss against Mizzou today.

What a weird dynamic too with Miami getting the national title game in their home stadium. My guess is the Hoosiers probably win by double digits. I think Miami is too mistake prone and Indiana punishes mistakes better than anyone right now. Miami’s mistakes very nearly got them beat against OM in a game they felt in firm control of for at least half of it.