Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State Prediction 1-7-25 College Basketball Picks

The Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Vanderbilt Commodores meet Tuesday in college basketball action from Vanderbilt University Memorial Gym. Here’s a Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State pick.

Mississippi State Bulldogs Betting Preview

The Bulldogs’ season kicked off on a nice run, featuring victories over their first six games. Those wins came courtesy of West Georgia, Georgia State, Southeast Louisiana, Utah, SMU, and UNLV. Following their first loss of the season versus Butler on November 29, the Bulldogs hit another win streak that has lasted until now. Mississippi State has beaten Pittsburgh, Prairie View A&M, McNeese State, Central Michigan, Memphis, Bethune-Cookman, and South Carolina in succession over the last seven games for a 13-1 overall record this year.

In the South Carolina matchup back on Saturday, the Bulldogs didn’t have too many issues at all. Mississippi State was up by a downright dominant 43-18 first-half margin, then cruised the rest of the way on a 42-32 run for a big blowout win 85-50. Topping the scoring in that one was Josh Hubbard with 21 points, three boards, and two assists. Claudell Harris nearly doubled up with 17 points, nine rebounds, and two assists as well. Lots of bench players got in on the action, and that group was led by KeShawn Murphy and Riley Kugel, each of whom contributed 12 points with a combined 10 rebounds and four assists to boot.

Vanderbilt Commodores Betting Preview

Over on the Vanderbilt side, they also got off to a nice start with six straight wins to begin the season. The Commodores dispatched Maryland Eastern Shore, Southeast Missouri State, California, Jackson State, Nevada, and Seton Hall in those half-dozen outings. Vanderbilt would take their first (and only) loss of the season thus far versus Drake on November 24 but then got right back to winning. the next seven outings were all wins versus Tennessee Tech, Virginia Tech, TCU, the Citadel, Austin Peay, New Orleans, and LSU in succession.

Matched up against LSU in their Saturday outing, the Commodores were ahead by a fairly comfortable 34-27 margin by the break. Vanderbilt kept rolling on a 46-45 second half and finished off an 80-72 victory by the final horn. AJ Hoggard led the team with his 17 points, four assists, one rebound, and one steal. Both Jaylen Carey (eight rebounds; two assists; two steals) and MJ Collins (four rebounds; two steals) had 14 points off the bench apiece, and Jason Edwards chipped in with 12 points and two rebounds in 17 minutes of work on the court.

Why the Vanderbilt Commodores will win

• Vanderbilt has won each of its last nine games at Memorial Gymnasium.
• Mississippi State has lost nine of its last 10 Tuesday road games against the Southeastern Conference.
• Vanderbilt has won the first half in each of its last eight games at Memorial Gymnasium.

Why the Mississippi State Bulldogs will win

• Vanderbilt has lost each of its last 10 games against AP-ranked opponents.
• Mississippi State has won each of its last seven games.
• Vanderbilt has lost the first half in seven of its last eight night games against AP-ranked opponents at Memorial Gymnasium.

Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State Prediction

I’m going to try Mississippi State here. You could obviously make a case either way, though; this should be one of the highlights of the Tuesday college basketball slate and we’ll have a great matchup if both teams play well. In any case, the Bulldogs drilled a pretty darn good South Carolina team in their last outing, posting 56.5 percent shooting from the floor alongside 40 rebounds and 18 team assists. On defense, the Bulldogs held South Carolina to just 29.1 percent shooting overall and 10.5 percent (2-of-19) from outside. Mississippi State has now posted 77 or more points in all but one game so far this year, the outlier being a 66-63 win over McNeese.

As for Vanderbilt, they handled LSU in a tricky road matchup quite well. The Commodores shot 43.8 percent from the field with 37 rebounds and just nine turnovers in that one. The foul shooting (66.7 percent on 16-of-24) could have been better, though. Still, Vanderbilt is on a nice scoring tear themselves this year with 70 or more points in every game so far. This will probably be the Commodores’ toughest matchup of the season, and I like them to push the Bulldogs to the limit in a tight Mississippi State cover/win. Don’t miss this game.