State Concludes SEC East Regular-Season Slate By Hosting Georgia
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STARKVILLE, Miss. - Closing out their regular-season slate against SECEastern Division opposition, the Bulldogs of Mississippi State (13-13, 3-10)play host to the Georgia Bulldogs (15-11, 5-8) Saturday afternoon on the MSUcampus. Tip-off time for the 95th series renewal of this inter-divisional"Battle of the Basketball Bulldogs" is set for 4 p.m. CT at MSU's HumphreyColiseum. The contest can be heard on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Channel 126)via Mississippi State's radio broadcast.
Continuing the league's week-long SEC Throwback Week celebration, allconference teams will be sporting retro-style uniforms from previous erasagain this weekend. All SEC schools will also don the throwback uniformsduring this year's SEC Men's Basketball Tournament, March 9-12, inNashville.
Winless in five previous attempts versus SEC Eastern Division opponents thisseason, coach Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs are 13-13 overall and 3-10 in leagueplay after dropping a 75-71 road decision to the Auburn Tigers this pastWednesday on the Plains. Since the SEC went to divisional play in 1991-92,State has never had a winless season versus the SEC East. With a 9-5 homerecord on the season after claiming recent home triumphs over WesternDivision foes Mississippi (84-55) and Auburn (71-53), MSU is bidding toproduce an eighth straight season with double-digit home wins underStansbury's guidance. State is 92-22 overall at home and 45-17 in SEC homegames during the Stansbury era.
SEC Freshman of the Year candidate Jamont Gordon and all-SEC hopeful CharlesRhodes are leading the Bulldogs offensively at 13.7 and 13.3 points pergame, respectively, on the season. In addition to ranking 12th among theSEC's leading scorers, Gordon stands 10th in the league in rebounding (6.6rpg) and ninth in assists (4.2 apg). Ranked 14th in the SEC in scoring forall games, Rhodes is tied for seventh in scoring (16.9 ppg) for conferencegames only after putting together a current string of 14 consecutivedouble-figure scoring games. The former Jackson Lanier standout also rankseighth among the SEC's leading rebounders (7.4 rpg) for all games and tiedfor third (8.8 rpg) for conference games only. On the heels of back-to-backdouble-doubles, junior swingman Dietric Slater has raised his season'saverages to 10.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per contest.
Guided by third-year head coach Dennis Felton, Georgia is 15-11 overall and5-8 in SEC action after snapping a three-game losing skid with Thursday'sdramatic 48-47 home win over South Carolina. Junior guard Levi Stukes andfreshman guard Mike Mercer pace the Bulldogs in scoring at 12.2 and 11.0points per outing, respectively, while sophomore guard Sundiata Gainesaverages 10.5 points in addition to leading UGA in rebounding (5.0 rpg),assists (3.3 apg) and steals (2.0 spg).
With Mississippi State and Georgia tied at 47 wins apiece in this all-timeseries history that dates back to the 1931-32 campaign, MSU has prevailed ineach of the last three head-to-head meetings by double digits. Last year,State claimed a 76-62 road win over Georgia in Athens during the regularseason and then posted a 76-65 first-round victory over UGA at the 2005 SECTournament played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.