Mississippi State's men's basketball program has gotten off to a hot start on the court, and it hasn't come without recognition.

The Associated Press ranked the Bulldogs No. 23 overall in its weekly rankings on Monday morning. This is the first time that the program has been ranked since the 2018-2019 season, in which it rose to 22nd at one point midway through the year. 

MSU is 8-0 to start the season with two wins over Quadrant 1 teams. The Bulldogs have held opponents to an average of 49.6 points per game while putting up roughly 70.1 points of their own in each contest. Redshirt senior Tolu Smith leads the team with 16.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, while Cameron Matthews dishes out roughly 2.4 assists in each matchup. 

Tennessee is the highest-ranked SEC team in the AP Poll: the Vols come in at No. 7 overall. Alabama is eighth and Arkansas is ninth to round out conference programs within the Top 10. No. 11 Auburn and No. 16 Kentucky are the only other SEC opponents ranked ahead of MSU. 

On top of being recognized in the AP Poll, Mississippi State was also treated to a fifth-place standing in the NCAA's first set of NET rankings. NET uses a quadrant system to determine each team's strength and ranks them individually based on the quality of victories, performance against higher-ranked teams, total team efficiency and overall winning percentage. These metrics are adjusted throughout the season and play a big role in deterring who makes it to the NCAA Tournament in March. 

The Bulldogs are the second SEC team on the list, coming in one spot behind Tennessee. Houston, UConn and Purdue make up the top three spots. There's still a long way to go in the season, but the early rankings could be a positive sign of what's to come for MSU with just a few games remaining ahead of SEC play.

Mississippi State will travel to Minnesota on Sunday to face off against the 4-4 Gophers after more than one week without competition. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and will stream on the Big Ten Network.