MSU Eager to Rebound After USC Loss; First and Second Round Action at Starkville Regional Sold Out

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) – Mississippi State earned its first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Monday, and on Tuesday the first- and second-round games at Humphrey Coliseum were officially declared a sellout late Monday night.

The Starkville regional is the only host site that is sold out.

The Bulldogs will host the first and second rounds for the third-straight year, welcoming Nicholls, Oklahoma State and Syracuse to Humphrey Coliseum.

State opens play against 16-seed Nicholls Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2. Eight-seed Syracuse faces nine-seed Oklahoma State in the opening game at 2:30 p.m. CT.

Mississippi State made history with its first No. 1 seed after putting together a 32-1 regular season that saw MSU win the first SEC regular-season championship in program history.

The Bulldogs went 30-0 in the regular season, the first SEC team to go undefeated in the regular season in 20 years. State went on to win 32-straight games, the second-longest win streak in school history and the second-most victories by an MSU squad.

Each of the previous two years, Mississippi State had one of the highest-attended regional sites. This season, State set the program attendance record as 113,814 filed into the Hump this season, including an arena-record 10,794 for MSU’s Feb. 5 win against South Carolina.

State ranked sixth nationally in total attendance, while its 7,113 average attendance landed No. 7 in Division I.

Although tickets are sold out from the MSU Ticket Office, they can still be purchased on Mississippi State’s secondary ticket partner, StubHub.