Mississippi State Sports Blog

Via Athletic Media Relations

Looking to secure their first 3-0 SEC start since 1993-94, the Mississippi State Bulldogs (11-5, 2-0) play host to the Wildcats of Kentucky (7-7, 1-0) as the second half of ESPN’s Super Tuesday lineup. Tip-off for the nationally televised inter-divisional contest is set for 8 p.m. CT at MSU’s Humphrey Coliseum. Brad Nessler and Jimmy Dykes will provide the play-by-play and color analysis, respectively, for ESPN, while Jeannine Edwards will handle the sideline reporting for the network.

Coach Rick Stansbury’s 11-5 Bulldogs have raced to a 2-0 start in conference play after having claimed a 60-49 home win over Georgia and winning at LSU, 61-39, during the opening week of league action. Riding a current six-game winning streak, MState enters the week leading the nation in field-goal percentage defense (.3535; ahead of Georgetown’s .3543) and trailing only Connecticut (9.33 to 8.63 bpg) atop the NCAA’s blocked shots leaderboard. Over their last three games in wins over Georgia, LSU and Lafayette College, the Bulldogs have limited the opposition to a collective 24.1 percent field-goal shooting overall, including just 18.6 percent accuracy from beyond the three-point arc, in addition to holding their opponents to an average of 47.0 points per outing. MSU has also averaged 12.0 blocked shots over its last three outings, highlighted by a school-record 16 rejects during Saturday’s 11-point home triumph over Georgia.

Junior Jamont Gordon (17.1 ppg & 6.6 rpg) and senior Charles Rhodes (15.0 ppg & 7.0 rpg) continue to lead the Bulldogs in scoring and rebounding, but it’s been the play of sophomore Jarvis Varnado stealing the headlines of late for MState. The nation’s leading shot-blocker at 5.19 swats per contest tied his own single-game school record with 10 blocks (along with nine points and nine rebounds) against Georgia. Averaging 7.2 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.2 blocks per game on the season, Varnado has averaged 11.8 points, 11.5 boards and 6.8 blocks over his last four contests.

Guided by first-year head coach Billy Gillispie, Kentucky is 7-7 overall after winning its SEC opener by way of a 79-73 double-overtime home victory over previously unbeaten Vanderbilt this past Saturday. Freshman forward Patrick Patterson paces the Wildcats in scoring (17.2 ppg), rebounding (8.4 rpg) and field-goal percentage (.618), while seniors Joe Crawford (16.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg & 2.4 apg) and Ramel Bradley (15.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg & 3.2 apg) form a potent backcourt tandem for UK.

The Bulldogs have reeled off five straight home SEC wins (Georgia, Alabama, Vanderbilt, Arkansas & LSU) by an average margin of 15.8 points per victory dating back to last February. This season, all six wins during MSU’s current winning streak have come by double digits and by an average margin of 20.8 points per win.

Following last year’s dramatic 84-82 overtime win over Kentucky during the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament in Atlanta, the Bulldogs will be attempting to record consecutive victories over the Wildcats for just the second time in this all-time series history that dates back to the 1920-21 hoops campaign. Previously during the coach Babe McCarthy era when MSU claimed at least a share of the SEC championship four times within a five-year span (1959-63), the Bulldogs beat coach Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats consecutively during the 1961-62 (49-44 in Lexington) and 1962-63 (56-52 in Starkville) campaigns.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am and is filed under Basketball, Mississippi State, News, Rick Stansbury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.