Last season: 18-16 (8-10 SEC, 10th)
Head coach: Chris Jans (first year at Mississippi State, 7th year overall, 143-44)
Possession-minutes returning: 41.2 percent
Scoring returning: 41.9 percent
Projected record: 13-17 (5-13 SEC)
SEC rank: 12th
How Did We Get Here?
You’re going to notice a recurring theme in my previews of the schools that elected a coaching change (okay, okay, not Georgia and LSU): really?
I mean, sure, I understand the urge to get rid of Ben Howland, a coaching veteran who ended his Mississippi State tenure with five consecutive winning seasons, though only one of them ended in the NCAA Tournament (the Bulldogs were squarely on the bubble in 2020 when the tournament was called off, so nah, I’m not going to make a value judgment on whether they’d have made it that season.