MSU Heads To New York To Meet West Virginia In NIT Semifinals
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Making their first-ever appearance in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament, the Bulldogs of Mississippi State (21-13, 8-8 SEC) meet the West Virginia Mountaineers (25-9, 9-7 BIG EAST) Tuesday in the 2007 MasterCard NIT Semifinals to be played at New York's famed Madison Square Garden. Tip-off for the first-ever MSU-WVU hardwood meeting is set for 7 p.m. ET and will precede the other semifinal-round contest pitting Clemson and Air Force. Both semifinal games will be televised live by ESPN2, while Thursday's 7 p.m. ET championship contest will air on ESPN.
Winners of five of their last six contests and nine of their last 12 decisions, coach Rick Stansbury's 21-13 Bulldogs head to New York having secured their sixth 20-win season under his guidance along with earning a share of their third SEC Western Division championship in the last five years. MState has earned its way to this year's NIT Semifinals in New York by having disposed of Mississippi Valley State (82-63), Bradley (101-72) and Florida State (86-71) by an average margin of +21.0 points per home NIT victory. MSU's all-SEC tandem of sophomore guard/forward Jamont Gordon(16.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg & 5.2 apg) and junior forward/center Charles Rhodes (13.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg & 1.9 bpg) has thus far combined to average 35.3 points and 13.0 rebounds per game between them during NIT play.
Guided by fifth-year head coach John Beilein, the Mountaineers of West Virginia University sport a 25-9 overall record and finished 9-7 in BIG EAST Conference play this season. Having used the same starting lineup all 34 games on the campaign, WVU earned a ticket to this week's NIT Semifinals by producing home triumphs over Delaware State (74-50), Massachusetts (90-77) and North Carolina State (71-66). Currently ranked second nationally in made 3-pointers per game (10.4/gm) as well as eighth in both assists per game (17.7 apg) and turnovers per game (11.2/gm), the Mountaineers are led in scoring by senior forward Frank Young (15.0 ppg with 107 made treys).
With an all-time mark of 2-1 at New York's Madison Square Garden, MState is making its third 'Big Apple' appearance in the last five years. Two seasons ago during the championship round of the 2004 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, the then-12th ranked Bulldogs bounced back from a 71-58 loss to No. 5 Syracuse with a 67-54 consolation victory over Saint Mary's. In MSU's first-ever appearance at Madison Square Garden, Stansbury's 22nd-ranked MState club posted a 71-61 neutral-site triumph over No. 11 Xavier on Dec.14, 2002.
MSU's Stansbury is 2-1 all-time versus West Virginia's Beilein, with those previous decisions having come while Beilein was the head coach at the University of Richmond.
The Southeastern Conference has been represented in the NIT championship game four times in the last six years, with South Carolina winning the title each of the past two years and finishing runner-up in 2002. Alabama placed second in the 2001 NIT and fourth in 1996. Georgia and Arkansas made the NIT Semifinals in 1998 and 1997, respectively.