Two teams from Mississippi made it to the NCAA Tournament this year. There could have been two more, but Mississippi State under-preformed late, and Ole Miss dug too deep of a hole early to make the Big Dance.
Southern Miss had not made the tournament since 1991—that's 21 years for non-math majors—so this is a long drought ended. Golden Eagles head coach Larry Eustachy is back in the tournament after derailing his career while he was at Iowa State.
USM plays a team with the scariest coach in recent memory in a second round match up against Kansas State. Goggle Frank Martin, KSU head coach, and you will see what I am talking about.
Mississippi Valley State had to win their conference tournament to get into the field. A 17-1 SWAC record would not have helped the Delta Devils get in.
Sean Woods, MVSU head coach, has a chance to make a tournament memory as a coach this time around. One thing is guaranteed: Grant Hill and Christian Laettner will not be there to ruin his moment but a very good Kentucky team might ruin it, anyway.
And speaking of Iowa State, former Cyclones player Fred Hoiberg is back to the tournament with Iowa State. This time he is a coach, not a player like Woods.
Here are a few mid-majors you should get to know this year: VCU (remember the final-four run from last year?), New Mexico State, Murray State (the only team in the country with just one loss) and Creighton. Gonzaga could make a deep run if they can get past a bad bracket playing West Virginia in Pittsburgh. Saint Mary's is another mid-major that could make noise.
As fun as it is to fall in love with the mid-majors, usually it's a team from the power conferences that end up winning it all. Don't expect that to change this year.
Kentucky is the best team in the tournament, but they are young. Syracuse will be a contender as well. Kansas and Duke played above themselves for most of the year in the eyes of experts. Still, even playing higher than talent level, the Jayhawks and Blue Devils are still good teams.
Connecticut is trying to be the first team to repeat as National Champions since Florida accomplished the feat in 2006-07. The Big Ten and the Big East once again need a good showing to justify all the teams they got into the dance.
Good luck filling out your brackets and trying to win your office pool. Enjoy the madness that is March.
Follow Bryan Flynn at http://www.jfpsports.com, Facebook and @jfpsports.
More like this story
More stories by this author
Support our reporting -- Follow the MFP.
