Next game: BU at Mississippi State- Sat. 11 am- ESPN

[Da Coach]

Bradley's next game is round 2 of the Master Card NIT. They will play the #1 seeded team in the North bracket, Mississippi State. They finished in a tie for first place in the SEC West Division with an 8-8 record.
The game will be televised on ESPN at 11 am on Saturday, 3/17.

The Bulldogs are 19-13 after their 1st round win at home against Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday, 82-63.--

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200703130366

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/teams/mbg

Mississippi State is lead by 6'4" sophomore guard Jamont Gordon who leads them in points (16.1 ppg), rebounds (7.2 rpg), and assists (5.0 apg). 6'8" Junior center Charles Rhodes is the only other double figure scorer at 13.7 ppg, 6.1 rpg. Their other 3 starters are 6'4" twins, soph guard Reginald Delk (9.7 ppg) and soph g/f Richard Delk (5.5 ppg) and senior forward Dietrich Slater (9.8 ppg). Their top 3 subs are all freshmen-- 6'2" guard Barry Stewart (9.7 ppg), 6'3" guard Ben Hansbrough (7.3 ppg and the brother of Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina), and 6'9" center Jarvis Varnado (4.9 ppg and 4.1 rpg).

Main team website--

http://www.mstateathletics.com/index.php?s=&change_well_id=1&url_channel_id=16

Schedule and results--

http://www.mstateathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=16&change_well_id=9995

Roster--

http://www.mstateathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=16&change_well_id=16

Stats--

http://www.mstateathletics.com/doc_lib/stats/mbk/200607/teamcume.htm

Fan sites--
Scout.com site--

http://mississippistate.rivals.com/default.asp?type=3

Scout.com Message board--

http://mississippistate.rivals.com/forum.asp?sid=909&fid=426

Rivals.com site--

http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=136&p=4&cfg=bb

Rivals.com message board--

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=136#S=136&F=1570

[Da Coach]

They drew just 5,501 fans to their first round NIT game Tuesday with instate rival Mississippi Valley State. Their average was 9,282 per game for the 16 games prior to that.

Their students are on spring break, so I would predict the attendance for a Saturday morning game would be even less.

[tornado]

Re: Next game: BU at Mississippi State- Sat. 11 am- ESPN

Their top ...subs are ...and 6'9" center Jarvis Varnado...

Jarvis Varnado....hmmmm...I really like this guy's name.


As I look into some of the stats for Mississippi State, it seems they don't shoot free throws well.

One of their starters, Richard Delk, is a 53.3% free throw shooter, and another starter, his brother, Reginald Delk hits on 39.4% of his FTs.
As a team they shoot 65.7% compared to 68% for Bradley, as we have a couple guys who don't hit well either.

Their best scorer, Jamont Gordon, is a strong, left handed, 6-4 scoring guard, averaging 16. 1ppg, but really takes a lot of shots to get those points.
He shoots only 42% from the floor and 34.5% from the arc, and averages 13 shot attempts per game, nearly one fourth of the entire team's total. His 203 free throws attempted also reflect nearly one third of the entire team's total, so he really gets to the line a lot (kinda like Nate Funk).

Their team 3-pt shooting is only 35.6% but they still launch a bunch of them, 699 on the season, averaging 22 per game (compared to 801 for BU, 24 per game, but Bradley nails 42.4% as a team), and setting their all time season record of 249 on the season (which isn't over yet.)
Mississippi State has only one player who shoots 3-pointers better than 38%, and that's UNC's Tyler Hansbrough's little freshman brother, Ben Hansbrough, who attempts only 3 per game-4th most on the team, and hits 42.3%.

Their best win is arguably their win vs. KENTUCKY, 84-82 in OT, and then they also beat Arkansas 84-60, but their only notable road win was at LSU 56-50.

They are 19-13 overall, 8-8 in the SEC, 11-5 in non-conference play, 14-3 at home, 3-9 away from home, and 1-8 in true road games.
Their 3 home losses were to Winthrop 74-63, Florida 70-67, and south Carolina 66-63.
They average 14 turnovers per game, 39 rebounds per game (BU averages 30).

They have only two seniors on the team, and only one gets much time at all, Slater who is a part time starter.
Their most frequent starting lineup is comprised of a freshman, three sophomores, and a junior.

In Tuesday's game Slater, the senior, started instead of the freshman, Varnado, but Slater was only 1-9.

In Tuesday's game, their leading scorer, Jamont Gordon, had a tremendous all around game, almost getting his second career triple double with 18 pts, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, but the leadsing scorer in the game was Charles Rhodes with 21.

Mississippi State also has set their all time record for blocks in a season at 205, as they are a very athletic, high flying team.

This is Mississippi State's 6th NIT appearance, they are now 4-5 overall in NIT games, and they made it to the NIT quarterfinals in 2001 losing to eventual champion Tulsa.
Their other NIT years were 1979, 1990, 1994, 1999.
MSU has also made 8 NCAA appearances.

Mississippi State's roster has no Illinois natives, one Missouri player-Ben Hansbrough from Poplar Bluffs, five Tennessee players, five Mississippi kids, and one each from Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, and one from Poland.

Their head coach, Rick Stansbury, is in his 9th year as head coach and 17th year overall at MSU.

http://www.mstateathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=16&url_subchannel_id=&url_article_id=8060&change_well_id=2

[MacabreMob]

DC...

Miss St 77 - Bradley 70

[GObravesGO1981]

We play the Bulldogs on Saturday...well my own bulldog is gettin' geared up for the game too. Lets get another one BU.

GO BRAVES!!!!

[Big Mike]

NICE!

[Da Coach]

It would be nice to post that on the MSU bulletin board!

[GObravesGO1981]

I'll post it over there as soon as my "application" to post goes through.


Quite the discussion about the lack of spirit groups over there (
read: Band, Cheerleaders, Dance Team)

Hope that they are all still on break.

[MacabreMob]

I'll post it over there as soon as my "application" to post goes through.


Quite the discussion about the lack of spirit groups over there (
read: Band, Cheerleaders, Dance Team)

Hope that they are all still on break.

Did you apply at the Rivals message board? I recall doing it for another teams board before and it took a while.... but I can't recall how long.

[GObravesGO1981]

Picture is up on their Dawg'sBite forum.

[MacabreMob]

Starting Lineups/Matchups?:

6'4" So GORDON (MSU) - 6'3" Sr TAUAI (BU)
6'3" Sr SLATER (MSU) - 5'10" Jr RUFFIN (BU)
6'8" Jr RHODES (MSU) - 6'7" Sr ANDREWS (BU)
6'4 So DELK (MSU) and 6'4" So DELK (MSU) - 6'0" Sr FRANKLIN (BU) and 6'5" Jr CROUCH (BU)

[OrangeandBlack74]

Starting Lineups/Matchups?:

6'4" So GORDON (MSU) - 6'3" Sr TAUAI (BU)
6'3" Sr SLATER (MSU) - 5'10" Jr RUFFIN (BU)
6'8" Jr RHODES (MSU) - 6'7" Sr ANDREWS (BU)
6'4 So DELK (MSU) and 6'4" So DELK (MSU) - 6'0" Sr FRANKLIN (BU) and 6'5" Jr CROUCH (BU)

I would think Ruffin would guard Gordon (PG v. PG), but who really knows except JL and staff.....

[MacabreMob]

Starting Lineups/Matchups?:

6'4" So GORDON (MSU) - 6'3" Sr TAUAI (BU)
6'3" Sr SLATER (MSU) - 5'10" Jr RUFFIN (BU)
6'8" Jr RHODES (MSU) - 6'7" Sr ANDREWS (BU)
6'4 So DELK (MSU) and 6'4" So DELK (MSU) - 6'0" Sr FRANKLIN (BU) and 6'5" Jr CROUCH (BU)

I would think Ruffin would guard Gordon (PG v. PG), but who really knows except JL and staff.....

I was only guessing JJ on their All-SEC player (plus size is more evenly matched).

[Da Coach]

Pregame article from MSU

http://www.mstateathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=16&url_article_id=8544&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

[tornado]

A couple of articles in the local Mississippi press:

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/SPORTS030102/703170329/1079

http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=239090&pub=1&div=Sports