A pivotal SEC game between a couple of top 15 teams takes place Wednesday night in Starkville. No. 14 Mississippi State (16-4, 4-3) hosts No. 4 Alabama (17-3, 6-1) in a battle of SEC positioning. Alabama is currently just one-half game behind Auburn atop the SEC standings while Mississippi is in a logjam of five teams currently 2.

A pair of SEC squads ranked in the top 15 face off for their first of two regular season meetings on Wednesday, Jan. 29 when the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide visit the No. 14 Mississippi State Bulldogs at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss.

No. 14 Mississippi State (16-4, 4-3) has lost three of its last five games with the setbacks all coming against ranked foes: then-No. 6 Kentucky, No. 1 Auburn and then-No. 6 Tennessee. The Bulldogs notched a 65-60 road victory in overtime versus South Carolina on Saturday. Alabama beat visiting LSU 80-73 on Saturday.

Can Mississippi State keep up? Alabama has a deadly style combination of hitting lots of threes, scoring lots of points, and doing a great job on the defensive boards. Against the nation's top scoring team,

Alabama and Miss State meet! It's time to continue our College Basketball odds series with an Alabama-Mississippi State prediction and pick.