Bulldogs Look To Maintain SEC Western Division Lead By Hosting Vanderbilt
With a 4-1 record during the current month of February, coach Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs are now 15-10 overall and tied with both Ole Miss and Alabama for the SEC Western Division lead with identical 6-6 league marks.Currently boasting an SEC-best, three-game league win streak after last Wednesday's 84-60 home win over Arkansas and Saturday's 56-50 triumph at LSU, MState presently owns the best divisional record (6-2) among SEC West teams and is the lone Western Division club to have won twice on the road in league play this season.
As a team, the Bulldogs enter the week ranked in the upper half (top six) of16 of the 19 statistical categories tracked by the SEC office for conference games only. For all games, Mississippi State has reclaimed the top spot among the league leaders in both field-goal percentage defense (.392; 13th in the NCAA) and three-point field-goal percentage defense (.294) after holding LSU to a season-low 50 points on 36 percent shooting and only3-of-16 (19%) accuracy from the three-point arc in Saturday's six-point road victory over the Tigers.
Individually, MSU continues to be paced by all-SEC candidates Jamont Gordon(16.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 4.6 apg) and Charles Rhodes (12.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg & 1.4 bpg). A native of Nashville, Gordon is averaging 18.3 points, while totalling 34 assists and only 14 turnovers, over the last eight games, while Rhodes has averaged nearly 20 points per game over his last three outings.A solid candidate for the SEC Sixth Man of the Year honor and an SEC All-Freshman Team hopeful, Barry Stewart adds 10.8 points per game on 40 percent three-point shooting off the Bulldog bench, while starters Dietric Slater and Reginald Delk are contributing 9.5 and 9.3 points per game, respectively, for State.
Guided by eighth-year head coach Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt enters the week ranked 17th nationally in the AP Top 25 after upsetting top-ranked Florida, 83-70, this past Saturday in Nashville. Now 18-8 overall and 8-4 in league play, the Commodores currently sit in sole possession of second place in the SEC Eastern Division standings. Leading the conference in assist/turnover ratio (1.33) and free-throw percentage (.718) for all games as a team, Vandy features four double-figure scorers on the year. Senior swingman Derrick Byars, the current SEC Player of the Week, averages 16.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game. Junior Shan Foster follows at 15.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest, while senior Dan Cage and former LSU transfer Ross Neltner add 11.3 and 10.2 points an outing, respectively.
Having prevailed in five of the last seven overall head-to-head meetings with Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs have claimed six consecutive home series wins over the Commodores dating back to the 1994-95 season. In Wednesday's home encounter with 17th-ranked Vandy, Mississippi State will bid to snap a 13-game losing skid against nationally ranked opponents in a streak that spans this season (0-3 to date this year) as well as the entire 2005-06(0-3) and 2004-05 (0-7) campaigns.