SEC West Champion Bulldogs Set To Meet 'Bama In SEC Hoops Tournament
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Having earned their fourth SEC Western Division title in the last six seasons and posting their seventh 20-win campaign of the past decade, the top-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs (21-9, 12-4) will begin competition at the 2008 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament in Game 7 Friday evening by taking on Alabama (17-15, 5-11), who downed Florida Thursday night in the first round. Tip-off time for MSU's Friday night contest is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Atlanta's Georgia Dome. The first three days of the four-day event will be televised regionally by Raycom Sports.
Owners of a league-high six SEC West crowns since the SEC went to divisional play in 1991-92, coach Rick Stansbury’s 21-9 Bulldogs posted their second-best conference record (12-4) under his 10-year guidance this season. Most recently, MState rebounded from a gut-wrenching 86-85 overtime road setback at 16th-ranked Vanderbilt by closing out a 12-3 home campaign with an 84-75 triumph over the LSU Tigers on ?Senior Day’ this past Saturday in Starkville.
As a team, the Bulldogs enter postseason tournament play ranked second nationally in both field-goal percentage defense (.369) and blocked shots (8.10 bpg) behind
Individually, the Bulldogs are powered by the first-team all-SEC tandem of junior Jamont Gordon (17.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg & 4.8 apg) and senior Charles Rhodes (16.8 ppg, 7.7 rpg & 56% FGs), who presently form the No. 3 scoring duo in the SEC for all games and second-best scoring tandem in league play behind LSU’s Marcus Thornton and Anthony Randolph. Sophomore guards Barry Stewart and Ben Hansbrough contribute 11.7 and 10.4 points per outing, respectively, while combining to average 8.4 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game as well as having made 109 three-point field goals between them for the season. Fellow sophomore Jarvis Varnado patrols the post as the nation’s No. 1 shot-blocker (4.80 bpg) to have made him a unanimous choice for this year’s SEC Defensive Player of the Year by a vote of the league’s head coaches. He also averages 7.8 points on 64-percent shooting and ranks as the fifth-leading rebounder (7.9 rpg) in the conference.