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CLANGA | Credit: Matt Bush-Imagn Images
It’s been a minute since the Marquette men’s basketball operation remembered that Ben Steele is the only professional beat writer — I love you, Marquette Tribune Sports Department! — covering the team and thus gave him a news tidbit or 17. Thus, it’s very nice to see the breaking news that Shaka Smart’s squad is starting up a home and home series with Mississippi State in the 2026-27 season coming from Steele and the Journal Sentinel. BONUS FUN NEWS FROM BEN: Marquette will be going on a foreign trip this summer when they head to Vancouver from July 27 through August 3rd.
First on Mississippi State: The series will start in the 2026-27 season with a game in Milwaukee at Fiserv Forum. Then in 2027-28, Marquette will travel to Starkville and visit Humphrey Coliseum for the first time ever. Dates are not yet official on that, so be patient. We can get an idea of how the season is going to set up thanks to the neutral site game against Missouri and the visit to Michigan, plus the Battle 4 Atlantis and the yearly game against Wisconsin, this time at Madison. If I had to guess, based on that information? Marquette’s hosting MSU on December 12th, one week after the game against the Badgers. Just a guess, though.
Marquette is 1-1 all time against Mississippi State. Both meetings came by way of Feast Week events, with the first coming in the 2012 Maui Invitational. MU shook off a buzzer beater loss to Butler — anti-shoutout to Rotnei Clark — in their first game to detonate MSU in the second, 89-62. The second meeting was in the Fort Myers Tip Off in 2022 as the Golden Eagles fell 58-55. You could argue that this loss held Marquette back from being a #1 seed that season because, yes, that was the team that ended up winning the Big East double title in March.
As for next season, Mississippi State is coming off their first season without winning 20 games under the direction of head coach Chris Jans. It was extra bad than just “didn’t win 20 games” as the Bulldogs went 13-19 overall and just 5-13 in SEC play. MSU started the year at #26 at KenPom.com and ended up falling to #102 when everything came to a stop. Things figure to be better in 2026-27, as BartTorvik.com is projecting Mississippi State to start the year at #69 in the national rankings…. but that’s still third worst in the SEC ahead of just Ole Miss and South Carolina. Getting junior guard Josh Hubbard to return is a big deal for them after he averaged 22.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists last season, and if you’re asking “why did he return,” then the answer definitely includes the fact that he’s listed at 5’10”.
Moving on to the trip to Vancouver, I wonder if Marquette is going to start taking these summer trips more often, as the NCAA has passed legislation that allows teams to go on the foreign trips every single year instead of just once every four years. The good news for the Golden Eagles here is that they’re going to play three games against some kind of opposition on this trip, and perhaps more importantly, by rule, they’re going to get extra practice time. You’re allowed to have a certain amount of full fledged team practices over the summer, but most of the time is designated for skill development kinds of things. The foreign trip rules allow you 10 extra full fledged practices with your team, and since Marquette is going to be working Sananda Fru into the starting lineup and Nolan Minessale into the rotation one way or another, those extra 10 practices are going to give Shaka Smart a jumpstart on getting his team going in the right direction come November.
Now, if we all hope and pray and cross our fingers and wish on a falling star, maaaaaaaaybe just maybe, someone in the athletic department will get the clue that all of us Marquette fans would like to watch the games on this foreign trip and figure out a way to make that happen.
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