Bulldogs Look To Maintain SEC West Lead At Arkansas In Road Finale
In the local Golden Triangle region, Wednesday's Lincoln Financial Sports telecast of the Mississippi State-Arkansas men's basketball game will be shown on WCBI-TV's digital channel My Mississippi, which is located on Channel 11 on Starkville's Northland Cable system, Channel 3 on Comcast Cable in both Tupelo and West Point, and Channel 4 on Columbus' Cable One system. Wednesday's contest from Fayetteville can also heard on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 158.
Keyed by a 5-2 month of February, coach Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs are 16-11 overall and tied with in-state rival Ole Miss for first place in the SEC West race with identical 7-7 league marks. MSU is bidding for its league-high fifth SEC Western Division championship since the Southeastern Conference went to divisional play in 1991-92, having most recently claimed back-to-back West crowns during the 2003-04 and 2002-03 campaigns. The Bulldogs had their four-game winning streak snapped this past Saturday with an 86-73 setback at Georgia. Having averaged 78.7 points per game during the month of February, MSU enters the final week of the regular season tied with Tennessee for the league lead in scoring offense (75.9 ppg) for conference games only. For all games, State is ranked second in the SEC in blocked shots (6.26 bpg; behind Arkansas) and begins the week needing seven more blocks to break the single-season school standard of 175 rejects currently held by MSU's Erick Dampier-led 1995-96 Final Four club.
Individually for the Bulldogs, all-SEC candidates Jamont Gordon and Charles Rhodes continue to rank as State's top two scorers and rebounders, respectively. Having last week registered the second triple-double in recorded school history with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in MState's 83-70 home win over then-No. 17 Vanderbilt, Gordon ranks as the SEC's sixth-leading scorer (15.7 ppg), fifth-best playmaker (4.85 apg) and No. 8 rebounder (7.3 rpg). Rhodes ranks 19th in the conference in scoring(13.1 ppg), 13th in rebounding (5.9 rpg) and fourth in field-goal percentage(.560).
Guided by fifth-year head coach Stan Heath, Arkansas owns a 16-12 overall record and 5-9 SEC mark on the year to currently rank fifth in the SEC West standings. After having dropped an 83-72 home decision to Tennessee this past Saturday, the Razorbacks have lost four of their last five contests, including an 84-60 Valentine's Day setback in Starkville two weeks ago. SEC Freshman of the Year candidate Patrick Beverley leads a trio of double-digit Arkansas scorers at 14.2 points per game, while Jackson native Charles Thomas averages 11.6 points and a team-best 5.5 rebounds per outing.
Having claimed six of the last seven (and eight of the last 10) series meetings between the two teams, the Bulldogs are bidding for their third season series sweep over the Razorbacks in the last four years after posting the 24-point victory over Arkansas two weeks ago at Humphrey Coliseum. With the last four Fayetteville meetings between the Dogs and the Hogs having been decided by an average margin of only 5.3 points per contest, MSU recently claimed back-to-back road wins over the Razorbacks during the2004-05 (57-55) and 2003-04 (77-70) campaigns.