MSU To Meet Stanford In First Round Of NCAA Tournament In Charlotte
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Having again extended their all-time, school-recordstreaks with this year's fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and fifthstraight postseason tournament appearance, the ninth-seeded MississippiState Bulldogs (22-10, 9-7 SEC) will meet the eighth-seeded StanfordCardinal (18-12, 11-7 Pac-10) in Friday's opening round of the 2005 NCAADivision I Men's Basketball Championship held in Charlotte, N.C. Tip-offfor Friday's MSU-Stanford game at the 22,806-seat Charlotte Coliseum is setfor approximately 9:55 p.m. ET, following the other first-round contestpitting Duke against Delaware State. Sunday's game times are scheduled for2:30 p.m. ET and 30 minutes following the conclusion of the day's firstcontest. CBS Sports is slated to televise the entire NCAA Tournament, withJim Nantz scheduled to handle the play-by-play duties and Billy Packerproviding the color analysis this weekend in Charlotte.
Prior to last year's SEC Championship season, Mississippi State had neitherpreviously earned three consecutive NCAA Tournament bids nor made fourstraight postseason tournament appearances in the school's 92-yearbasketball history. With their highest seeding (No. 2) in school history ayear ago, coach Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs claimed an 85-52 first-round NCAATournament victory over Monmouth in Orlando before dropping an 89-74second-round decision to an Elite Eight-bound Xavier ballclub at the TDWaterhouse Centre.
This year's State squad enters NCAA Tournament competition sporting a 22-10overall record and 9-7 league mark to finish third in the SEC WesternDivision standings behind divisional co-champions Alabama and LSU. TheBulldogs this season have also bettered their previous school standards byrecording a fourth straight 20-win season as well as registering a winningrecord in regular-season conference play for the fourth year in a row.
Statistically, Mississippi State is bidding for an unprecedented fifthconsecutive SEC rebounding margin team statistical title. Ranked fourthnationally as of last week in rebound margin (+8.8 rpg), the Bulldogs haveoutrebounded all but five of their 32 opponents on the season, including allbut one (at Alabama) of their regular-season conference foes. Also as ateam, MSU enters NCAA Tournament play ranked third in the league inthree-point field goal percentage defense (31.8%) and fifth in overallfield-goal percentage defense (41.1%).
Individually, the Bulldogs continue to be powered by repeat first-teamall-SEC standout Lawrence Roberts, who leads the SEC in rebounding (10.9rpg) and double-doubles (18), while ranking fifth in the league in scoring(16.7 ppg), eighth in field-goal percentage (45.1%) and 10th in steals (1.6spg). The reigning first-team all-American currently leads all active NCAADivision I men's basketball players with 56 career double-doubles. Fellowseniors Winsome Frazier and Shane Power are also averaging in double figureson the year at 12.2 and 11.2 points per game, respectively.
Earning an 11th straight NCAA Tournament berth, the Stanford Cardinal entersthis year's NCAA Tournament with an 18-12 overall record and 11-7 leaguemark after finishing tied for third with UCLA behind Arizona and Washingtonin the regular-season Pac-10 Conference standings. Guided by first-yearhead coach and former Nevada head man Trent Johnson, Stanford is down toonly nine healthy players and will be without the team's leading scorer,first-team all-Pac-10 performer Dan Grunfeld (17.9 ppg), for the rest of theseason after going down with a torn ACL in his right knee against Californiaon Feb. 12. In his absence, the Cardinal has been led by junior guard ChrisHernandez, who now tops the club in scoring (15.2 ppg), assists (4.0 apg)and steals (1.7 spg), along with shooting 41 percent from three-point rangeand 81 percent from the line. Junior 6-11 forward Matt Haryasz averages12.5 points and a team-leading 9.1 rebounds per contest, while 6-10 seniorcenter Rob Little contributes 8.8 points and 6.1 rebounds an outing.
Friday's Mississippi State-Stanford contest will mark just the secondall-time hardwood meeting between the two teams. In Stansbury's secondseason at the State helm, the 1999-2000 Bulldogs dropped a 76-56 decision tothe then-top ranked Cardinal during the Pete Newell Challenge played inOakland.