Video: Celebrating The Lady Bulldogs

STARKVILLE, Miss.(WCBI)—There is a lot of energy in Starkville, especially on the Mississippi State Campus. Students, faculty, and staff are excited about their Women’s Basketball Team  going where no squad before them has gone.

Tip off is Friday, so fans are busy making those last minute travel plans.

After defeating the Baylor Bears the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs are packing their bags to head to Dallas.

Jeff Davis is Executive Director of the Alumni Association and he says knowing the success of the team they had to hurry and start planning.

“Two weeks ago we rolled out our final four packages that we offer to our fans at no risk, assuming that the Bulldogs punched their ticket and we’re so excited that they did,”said Davis.

The deadline to book the alumni travel package was Monday at noon but Davis says not to worry.

“There are thousands of hotel rooms within a stone’s throw of the arena, Downtown Dallas, the Market Center. The Bulldogs are staying at the Hilton and that’s about two miles form the arena. So lots of rooms available for fans, able to get tickets through stub hub or other options where tickets are out there. They shouldn’t have any trouble finding a hotel there in Dallas,”said Davis.

Davis says hotel stays are just half the battle.

“At this point you’re within the seven day period for air so it’s going to be hit or miss depending on your schedule. I did see some cheap flights out of Meridian, one way flights. You know, you don’t want to book around trip until you know what potentially, hopefully planning Sunday. It’s about an eight hour drive from there to Starkville,”said Davis.

John Hendricks store, The Lodge, has been busy the last few weeks with fans looking for Lady Bulldog apparel.

” There’s been a lot of excitement about the girls basketball success and it’s the first time for the university and that’s added to the excitement. We finally got our first single team shirts in Tuesday and there’s been a lot of traffic on that. Everybody is excited to be able to celebrate the success of the girls,”said Hendricks.

Dallas is approximately 521 miles away from Starkville, but Davis believes, faithful fans will pack the arena Friday night.

” We’ve got about four thousand graduates in the Houston area, a few thousand there in the Metroplex. I know alumni groups on social media chatter, have been posting a lot of both watch parties. We’ve got about 100 online groups who are sending us information that we will dispense out to our alumni and friends for those who aren’t making the trip but we know we’re going to have a lot of maroon and white there supporting the bull dogs,”said said Davis.

The Lady Bulldogs take on UConn  at 9 PM Eastern time Friday.