MSU's Rick Stansbury Earns District Coach Of The Year Honors
In addition to being named the NABC Coach of the Year for District 6, comprised of 28 regional schools from the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, Stansbury also earned the USBWA's Coach of the Year honor for District IV, which encompasses NCAA Division I basketball programs within the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Entering this weekend's NCAA Tournament action ranked third on MSU's all-time list with a 125-63 (.665) career coaching record in six seasons at the State helm, Stansbury's eighth-ranked Bulldogs will be making school history this weekend in Orlando, Fla., by claiming their fourth consecutive postseason tournament appearance and earning the team's third straight NCAA Tournament berth as an all-time, school-best No. 2 seed. In directing MSU to the school's first outright SEC title since 1962-63 and a second straight SEC Western Division crown, Stansbury's record-setting 2003-04 State squad also established new regular-season school standards for most overall wins (25) and most SEC victories (14).
Stansbury's 25-3 Bulldogs will meet the 15th-seeded Hawks of Monmouth University (21-11) in first-round tournament action Friday evening in Orlando. Tip-off time for the first-ever hardwood meeting between MSU and Monmouth is slated for 7:10 p.m. ET at the TD Waterhouse Centre, and the entire 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship will be televised by CBS Sports. Friday's Mississippi State-Monmouth winner will advance to meet the Louisville-Xavier winner Sunday afternoon at either 12:10 p.m. or 2:40 p.m. ET in second-round regional play.