MSU's Jamont Gordon Earns Fourth SEC Freshman Of The Week Honor
Gordon averaged 17.0 points, 7.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game lastweek for coach Rick Stansbury's 15-14 Bulldogs. Last Wednesday at Arkansas,Gordon totaled 17 points, seven assists and three rebounds in MSU's 80-70loss to the Razorbacks. The southpaw swingman then followed with ateam-high 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds in State's 71-58 hometriumph over Alabama this past Saturday, in addition to helping limitCrimson Tide standout guard Ronald Steele to just seven points on 2-of-9shooting from the field.
Heading back to his hometown of Nashville this week for the SEC Men'sBasketball Tournament to be played at the Gaylord Entertainment Center,Gordon enters Thursday's first-round contest against South Carolina needingjust two more assists to break Rich Knarr's freshman season school record of127 assists set in 1972-73. Gordon also begins postseason tournament playwith a current string of 11 consecutive games scoring in double figures.
For the season, Gordon ranks 11th nationally among the NCAA's topfreshmen scorers (13.9 ppg), 15th in rebounding (6.6 rpg), 13th in assists(4.3 apg) and 17th in minutes played (32.9 mpg). He joinsLouisiana-Lafayette senior Dwayne Mitchell as the only two players in NCAADivision I men's basketball currently averaging at least 13.5 points, 6.5rebounds and 4.0 assists per contest on the season. Within the SEC for allgames, Gordon stands 12th among the league's scoring leaders, ninth inrebounding, sixth in assists and 10th in minutes. For conference gamesonly, the former second-team PARADE All-American at Oak Hill Academyfinished the regular season ranked 14th in scoring (14.1 ppg), eighth inrebounding (7.5 rpg) and second behind South Carolina's Tre' Kelley inassists (5.1 apg).
Entering this week's SEC Tournament action leading all SEC freshmen inscoring average, Gordon has scored in double figures in 25 of 29 games forthe Bulldogs and has been the team's leading scorer or co-leader a team-most12 times on the year. The lone MSU player to have started all 29 games thisseason also stands second in assists and third in rebounding among theleague's top freshmen players for all games.
Gordon is bidding to become the first Bulldog freshman to leadMississippi State in scoring at season's end since former NBA forward/centerRickey Brown (1976-77). The 6-foot-4-inch, 225-pound Gordon is alsopresently posting the highest rebounding average by a State rookie sincecurrent Dallas Mavericks center Erick Dampier (1993-94).
Surpassing three-time SEC Freshman of the Week recipients Tyrus Thomasof LSU and Alabama's Richard Hendrix with this week's recognition, Gordonpreviously claimed the league's rookie honor for the weeks of Jan. 30-Feb.5, Dec. 19-25 and Nov. 28-Dec. 4.