Why Sam Purcell believes Mississippi State women's basketball belongs in March Madness
Mississippi State women’s basketball coach Sam Purcell has a taste for Whitney Houston this time of year. He dreams of her hit “I Wanna Dance with Somebody" playing as balloons fall from the rafters and confetti shoots onto the court to celebrate success in March.
Those sights and sounds will be reserved for a conference foe in this year’s SEC Tournament after Mississippi State was one-and-done following Thursday’s 79-72 loss to No. 13 seed Texas A&M. However, Purcell doesn’t think his team’s season is over yet.
Despite the Quadrant 3 loss in Greenville, South Carolina, Purcell expects the Bulldogs to be called on Selection Sunday.
“I still think we’re an NCAA Tournament team,” Purcell told reporters postgame.
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According to ESPN's projection from Tuesday, he's right. Mississippi State was off the bubble as a No. 9 seed.
Purcell told his team he was in a similar situation last season while serving in his ninth and final season as a Louisville assistant. The No. 2-seeded Cardinals opened ACC tournament play with a loss to No. 7 seed Miami.
However, Louisville maintained a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Final Four before losing to eventual national champion South Carolina.
“Instead of just saying, ‘Why us?’ and having all this bad anger or whatever, we got back in the gym” Purcell recalled. “We came together. We learned from those moments, and we made a run to the Final Four This is a team that I know is hurting. We all are, but we’re going to give credit to Texas A&M. We’ll get back in the gym, and then we’ll await our fate come Selection Sunday.”
Purcell’s confidence in the Bulldogs making March Madness for the first time since 2019 stems from his trust in the committee to look at the season’s entire body of work. Mississippi State has Quadrant 1 wins against Tennessee and Alabama along with four Quadrant 2 victories.
The loss to A&M comes with a pair of regular-season wins against the Aggies. It’s the lone non-Quadrant 1 loss for Mississippi State.
“We’ve got to look back at the course of the other opportunities we had, and we seized it,” Purcell said. “We had some serious games where we had injuries, but we fought. We had people out, and we found a way to win. We’ll learn from this, but this one hurts a little bit.”
Purcell got support from Texas A&M coach Joni Taylor as well as MSU guard JerKaila Jordan. Both agreed MSU should be dancing in two weeks.
“This game is definitely a learning moment for us,” Jordan said. “It’s a lesson. We’re not going to hold our heads down. We’re going to get back in the gym. It’s not over for us.”
The Selection Show for the NCAA Tournament is at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 12. It’ll air on ESPN after the men’s bracket is revealed at 5 p.m. on CBS.
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State women's basketball belongs in March Madness, coach says
