Mississippi State vs Texas A&M Odds, Pick & Prediction

Both Mississippi State and Texas A&M need a win on Wednesday night in College Station.

These two teams currently sit in the middle of the pack in the SEC and are fighting for positioning in the conference tournament as well as a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

This will be the first and only meeting of the year between the two, barring a collision next week in Nashville.

At the time of writing, A&M has just opened as a tiny home favorite in a game that figures to be competitive throughout.

The Bulldogs have pretty much been a .500 team throughout SEC play. Given the depth of the conference, there's no shame in that. Chris Jans' team should be comfortably in the NCAA Tournament field, but one more conference win would pretty much lock things up.

Tolu Smith is one of the more reliable bigs in the league, and he should be aggressive when he has the ball on the block in this matchup. Henry Coleman III's minutes have gone down for Texas A&M in recent weeks, meaning Smith will have a height advantage on the Aggies' other interior defenders.

Mississippi State also needs to take better care of the basketball against an A&M team that likes to swarm opponents and jump into passing lanes.

In a game that could very easily come down to the final minutes, limiting turnovers would go a long way in helping the Bulldogs secure the road victory.

After an 85-69 victory over Tennessee on Feb. 10, things were looking rather promising for Buzz Williams' team. After that game, however, A&M dropped five in a row before finally getting off the schneid against Georgia last Saturday in Athens.

During that losing streak, TAMU got off to extremely slow starts to most games and would have stretches where it could get nothing going offensively.

Wade Taylor IV has not been as efficient of a scorer as he was to begin the year, and he's often asked to do too much in the half-court.

The positive side is this — A&M is still firmly on the bubble despite that losing streak, and this team is still playing really hard.

One would think there should be some positive shooting regression on its way after a brutal cold stretch. If guys like Jace Carter, Hayden Hefner and Tyrece "Boots" Radford could knock down a few more shots from the perimeter, it could jump-start an Aggie offense that really hits the offensive glass hard.

It's now or never for A&M on Wednesday night.

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The Aggies have dropped their last two home games, but I think they find a way to get it done on senior night.

A&M should dominate the boards and give itself plenty of second-chance opportunities.

Mississippi State has struggled to shoot the ball outside of Starkville, so look for Williams to throw a couple of zone looks at the Bulldogs in addition to man.

Laying points with Texas A&M has not been a wise move in SEC play, but I believe the Aggies keep their tourney hopes alive with a big performance in their final home game of the season.

Pick: Texas A&M -1.5