Cohen's Corner - 5/23/18 - Mississippi State

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Summer is in full swing on campus with the spring semester done and temperatures rising each day. However, even as the athletic year winds down, we've still got teams in action, starting with a remarkable 19 of our track and field athletes heading to NCAA East Preliminaries this weekend for a chance to advance to the NCAA Championships in Oregon where we hope to bring home even more National Championships under Coach Dudley and his staff.

I want to thank all of you who packed out Dudy Noble one last time over the weekend as we closed out the regular season for baseball with a huge sweep of the No. 1 team in the country, all but locking up an appearance in yet another NCAA Regional for this program.

I can't express how proud I am of the guys on the team, as well as Coach Henderson and the entire staff for the way they've navigated obstacles and finished the year in such impressive fashion. We will find out next Monday where our team is headed and I know that no matter where they go, they will have support from Bulldogs everywhere.

BORGES, BROSKA, ROBERTS HONORED AS MEN'S TENNIS FINISHES IN TOP 5 NATIONALLY

I want to start here by congratulating our entire men's tennis program on an absolutely outstanding season. The run by these young men stretched all the way to the national quarterfinals this past weekend as a hard-fought 4-3 decision against third-seeded Ohio State on Sunday ultimately finished the year. The Bulldogs learned today that they finished No. 5 nationally in the final ITA Rankings, the highest since MSU ended 1998 No. 4. What Coach Roberts and his team did this year is deserving of high praise and has instilled pride in all of us. I know I speak on behalf of many when I say that I can't wait to see what the future holds and, even still, we have more on the way this week with individual singles and doubles postseason competition getting underway today in Winston-Salem.

Meanwhile, more congratulations are in order for a trio of Bulldogs honored this week. After already being named the SEC Player of the Year and SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Nuno Borges earned the ITA National Arthur Ashe, Jr. Leadership and Sportsmanship Award on Tuesday. Coach Matt Roberts, already named the SEC Coach of the Year, earned Coach of the Year honors again for ITA Southern Region. And to show the future is just as bright as the present, newcomer Florian Broska was named the ITA Southern Region Rookie of the Year after a season that saw 20 wins and honors on the SEC All-Freshman team. Congrats to all of our Bulldogs on their accomplishments!

FACILITIES UPDATE

As we near the offseason, I wanted to share some news on our facility upgrades and additions across campus. We are constantly striving to create the best experiences for our fans and to give our programs every possible edge in their fields of play and in recruiting.

As we recently announced, construction began and is already well underway on a new locker room in the north end zone of Davis Wade Stadium for Coach Moorhead and our football team. In addition to much larger and nicer gameday facilities for our players and coaches, we were also able to design a top of the line recruiting lounge for prospective student-athletes visiting our campus. And here's more good news about the whole thing: it won't change Dawg Walk through The Junction one bit.

As you saw this weekend if you came to the New Dude, we've laid the foundation and started erecting support beams for the Left Field Lofts, a ballpark feature that will be unlike anything in college baseball. Construction on the Lofts and stadium itself continues every day and I can't wait for everyone to experience and enjoy the finished project when we have the grand opening next spring.

We are thrilled to share that our volleyball and soccer facilities are both getting new video boards from Daktronics this year, much-needed additions that will enhance the fan experience and add to the already incredible atmospheres we have for those two programs.

And finally, renovation of the Templeton Athletic Academic Center is nearly complete, meaning our student-athletes will soon be able to make use of a state-of-the-art facility that showcases the school's athletic history and facilitates the academic growth of our young men and women.

STUDENT-ATHLETES SHINE IN ACADEMIC PROGRESS RATES

We speak often about the emphasis on the student part of being a student-athlete at MSU, and over the years we have had had a great many reasons to be proud of our students for their accomplishments in the classroom and in the community. Their dedication to education is on display yet again in the APR scores released today.

We had a whopping six different programs earn a perfect score of 1,000, and it is an example of our standards both in competition and in the classroom that our National Finalist women's basketball team also happened to set a record with their 975 APR score, and in the middle of going to eight-straight bowl games, our football team hit a new high with a score of 975, 11 points higher than the national average.

I commend our coaches, our student-athletes and our academic support staff for their commitment to education and to valuing the collegiate experience.

We appreciate what you do for Mississippi State Athletics and want to encourage you to get others involved. There are three things you can do to help the athletic department at Mississippi State reach its desired goals:

1. Buy Season Tickets
2. Financially Support the Bulldog Club
3. Get Others To Do The Same

Thanks for taking the time to read this update.

Hail State!

John Cohen
Director of Athletics

Mississippi State University Athletics

Cohen's Corner - 5/23/18

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