MSU's Jarvis Varnado Picks Up Another Defensive Player Of The Year Honor

STARKVILLE, Miss. ? Mississippi State sophomore Jarvis Varnado has picked up his second national honor in a week, as the NCAA’s leading shot-blocker has been named Rivals.com’s 2007-08 National Defensive Player of the Year.

The unanimous pick for this season’s SEC Defensive Player of the Year honor is joined on the Rivals.com All-Defensive First Team by Mario Chalmers of NCAA champion Kansas, Joey Dorsey of NCAA runner-up Memphis, Xavier’s Stanley Burrell, and Jerel McNeal of Marquette. The second team is comprised of UCLA’s Russell Westbrook, Connecticut’s Hasheem Thabeet, Michael Flowers of Wisconsin, Washington State’s Kyle Weaver, and Chris Kramer of Purdue.

A native of Brownsville, Tenn., Varnado averaged an NCAA-best 4.62 blocks per game, while his 157 rejects on the season tied Shaquille O’Neal’s all-time SEC season record set at LSU during the 1991-92 campaign. His school-record 157 blocks also tie for 15th place on the NCAA’s all-time season chart.

Having also recently been named the 2007-08 CollegeInsider.com National Defensive Player of the Year, Varnado ranked as the SEC’s sixth-leading rebounder this year at 7.8 boards an outing. He was credited with a school-record 10 blocks versus NCAA Tournament participants Kentucky, Georgia and Miami (Fla.) on the year, along with recording the school’s third triple-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocks against the Wildcats on Jan. 15.

With a two-year total of 224 career blocks, Varnado already stands second on Mississippi State’s all-time list behind current Dallas Mavericks veteran center Erick Dampier (249 career MSU blocks). The 6-foot-9, 210-pound Varnado also presently tops MSU’s all-time chart in career field-goal percentage (.643) after shooting 64.1 percent from the field this past season.

Varnado’s defensive presence in the middle this season for coach Rick Stansbury’s NCAA Tournament squad enabled the 23-11 Bulldogs to rank second nationally as a team in blocked shots (7.85 bpg) and field-goal percentage defense (.370) behind Connecticut and Georgetown, respectively. For the second consecutive season, MState also established a new all-time, single-season school standard with 267 blocks this season after 222 rejects a year ago.

Mississippi State University Athletics

MSU's Jarvis Varnado Picks Up Another Defensive Player Of The Year Honor