STARKVILLE, Miss. ? For his season-long, shot-blocking exploits, Mississippi State sophomore Jarvis Varnado has been named the 2007-08 CollegeInsider.com National Defensive Player of the Year.
Earlier this week, Varnado was one of 16 players named to the CollegeInsider.com Defensive All-America team.
A product of Haywood High School in Brownsville, Tenn., Varnado leads the nation with an average of 4.62 blocked shots per game. His 157 blocks on the season tied LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal’s all-time SEC season standard first established during the 1991-92 campaign. With the 157 blocks tying for 15th place on the NCAA’s all-time, single-season chart, Varnado has individually blocked more shots than 305 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams (out of 341 NCAA Division I programs) during the current season, according to research provided by STATS out of Chicago.
The unanimous choice by a vote of the league’s head coaches as the 2007-08 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, Varnado also averaged 7.9 points and ranked as the conference’s No. 6 rebounder at 7.8 boards per game on the year. Having been credited with five or more blocks on 17 occasions this season, Varnado recorded 10-block outings against NCAA Tournament entries Kentucky, Georgia and Miami (Fla.). In the Bulldogs’ 69-64 home victory over the Wildcats on Jan. 15, he added 10 points and 12 rebounds to record the third triple-double in school history.
With a two-year total of 224 career blocks in 69 MSU outings (3.25 bpg), Varnado already ranks second on Mississippi State’s all-time list behind Erick Dampier’s three-year total of 249 career blocks. Varnado also presently tops MState’s all-time chart in career field-goal percentage (.643) after shooting 64.1 percent from the field this past season.
At 6-foot-9, 210 pounds and with a 7-foot-4-inch wingspan, Varnado’s defensive presence in the post this season for coach Rick Stansbury’s NCAA Tournament squad has enabled the 23-11 Bulldogs to rank second nationally as a team in blocked shots (7.85 bpg) and field-goal percentage defense (.370). For the second straight year, MSU also established a new all-time, single-season school standard for blocks with 267 rejects this season after 222 a year ago.
In recognition of his shot-blocking accomplishments this season, Varnado is showcased in a one-page photo feature entitled ?Shootaround’ currently available in the 2008 NCAA Men’s Final Four Official Program, published by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, CBS Sports and IMG.
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