Bulldogs To Meet Oregon Friday Night To Tip Off NCAA Tourney In Little Rock

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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Making their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last seven years, the eighth-seeded Mississippi State Bulldogs (22-10, 12-4 SEC) meet the ninth-seeded Oregon Ducks (18-13, 9-9 Pac-10) of the Pac-10 Conference Friday evening in Little Rock, Ark., during first-round tournament action of the South Regional. Tip-off at the 16,060-seat Alltel Arena is set for 6:25 p.m. CT.

All NCAA Tournament games will be televised by CBS Sports, with Ian Eagle and former Duke standout Jim Spanarkel scheduled to call the action from Little Rock this weekend. The winner of Friday’s MSU-UO matchup will advance to take on the winner of the game between the top-seeded and second-ranked Memphis Tigers and No. 16 seed Texas-Arlington Sunday.

Winners of eight of their last 11 contests, coach Rick Stansbury’s 22-10 Bulldogs claimed their fourth SEC Western Division title in the last six seasons with this year’s 12-4 regular-season league mark. MSU won the SEC West by three games over runner-up Arkansas. Most recently in Atlanta during last weekend’s SEC Tournament, State posted a 69-67 overtime triumph over divisional rival Alabama on Friday evening before dropping a 64-60 decision to eventual tourney champion Georgia during Saturday’s semifinal-round action held at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

Entering postseason tournament play still ranked second in the nation in both field-goal percentage defense (.368) and blocked shots (7.94 bpg), the Bulldogs are paced by the first-team, all-SEC veteran tandem of junior guard/forward Jamont Gordon (17.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg & 4.8 apg) and senior forward Charles Rhodes (16.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg & 56% FGs). Defensively, SEC Defensive Player of the Year Jarvis Varnado (7.7 ppg & 7.9 rpg) continues to top the NCAA in blocks with 4.63 swats per contest.

Hailing from Eugene, the University of Oregon Ducks are 18-13 overall on the year and finished the regular season with a break-even 9-9 mark in Pac-10 Conference play. Guided by 11th-year head coach Ernie Kent, a 1977 Oregon graduate, the Ducks currently rank 11th nationally in three-point field-goal percentage (.401) and 12th in overall field-goal percentage (.485). Featuring three 1,000-point career scorers, Oregon is paced by second-team, all-Pac-10 senior forward Maarty Leunen, who is second on the team in scoring (15.2 ppg) and the club’s No. 1 rebounder at 9.2 boards per game to rank 37th nationally. Senior guard Malik Hairston averages a team-high 16.1 points a game and ranks as one of four UO players to have hit at least 49 three-point field goals on the season.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Bulldogs To Meet Oregon Friday Night To Tip Off NCAA Tourney In Little Rock