Just Because

So great.

Gordon Will Be Back

Jamont Gordon says he will be back next year. Did anyone really think he was going to make the jump this year though? This is great news, but it shouldn't be unexpected. The thought of him going to the NBA wasn't even on my radar screen. Now after next year, assuming he improves as he did over the course of this season, I would not be surprised to see him go.

Baseball and Football Notes

Let's start with baseball. MSU played a three game series against #2 South Carolina over the weekend. As I've mentioned, they got hammered in Game 1, 20-3. State took Game 2 in a 12-inning 6-5 victory. Pigott pitched well enough and Moreland was great in relief, with Crosswhite and Bowen contributing as well. Moreland has looked pretty good all year and I would like to see more of him. That means it probably won't happen though. Game 3 was an 8-3 South Carolina win. Not good. So, State gets 1 out of 3 in the series and is sitting at 14-6, 3-3 on the year. This team just isn't very good. That's all there is too it. SC had 52 hits and 33 runs in the series. My word, that is terrible. The pitching is pretty mediocre, the offense is only good when facing average pitchers, and Polk isn't exactly setting the world on fire. It's going to be a long long year.

Speaking of long years, we got football to follow up baseball. That's rough isn't it? After what is looking to be a disappointment in baseball, we get Croomball as the encore presentation. Spring practice is going on and things are looking exactly like they have every year under Croom. The offense sucks even though the defense is worse than last year, receivers can't catch, quarterbacks can't throw, etc, etc. Actually, Riddell is looking pretty good, so thats something to hang your hat on. Henig on the other hand, well decide for yourself. In the last scrimmage, he completed 4 of 25 passes for 43 yds and 1TD with an interception. That is pathetic, absolutely pathetic. Or is it?

Returning starter Michael Henig was 4-for-25 for 43 yards, but was plagued with more than his share of drops from receivers. He passed for a touchdown and had an interception, but was proud of how he led the first-teamers on a first series that ended with an Adam Carlson 41-yard field goal.

"We moved the ball early out there," Henig said. "That's the first time since I've been here in scrimmages that we drove down and put some points on the board on the first drive."

He's proud of getting a field goal? If thats the case, the offense is going to suck so bad. In 4 years under Croom, this is the first time you scored on the opening drive? What the hell? Until I see otherwise I am going to continue to believe this team will be a complete disaster. Three win season here we come, again. I'm sure those in charge will see just enough intangible improvement to keep Croom around though. All that intangible improvement they've seen the last 3 years has done so much good for the team hasn't it.

WTF

State got trounced 20-3 by South Carolina yesterday evening. 20 to freaking 3. MSU sucked in every possible way. There, thats your overview. Polk had this to say,

“I’d rather lose a game like that than a 5-4 game when somebody walks in the winning run or makes an error,” Polk said.

Yep, I think we all prefer having our collective asses handed to us rather than, oh I don't know, being competitive. A little later he drops this nugget of wisdom on us,

“South Carolina is a good hitting team".

...Really? What gave it away? Was it the 25 hits or the 20 runs?

Baseball Update

3/10 MSU vs Baylor, Win 8-6: Pigott wasn't too good, and this is coming off of a game where Weatherford didn't play all that well. If Pigott and Weatherford live up to expectations, this team might be screwed. Unless another pitcher emerges. Easley continued to lead the way at the plate, getting 3 hits and 2 RBI's

3/11 MSU vs San Francisco, Win 2-1: Josh Johnson surprises and plays an excellent game. He gave up 4 hits and 1 ER in 8 innings while tying a career high with 11 strike-outs. It'd be nice if he could step up and be a consistent performer.

3/14 MSU vs. Dallas Baptist, Lost 11-8: Dallas Baptist?? Come ooonnn. The mid-week pitching sucks and will most likely continue to suck all year. Way to go Polk, pull Whitney after he has already allowed 8 runs. Good call, wouldn't want to get on that a little sooner.

3/16-3/18 MSU at Florida, Win 12-9; Lost 10-8; Win 14-13: Well, they took the series which is nice, but Florida is pretty mediocre. What is going on with this pitching though. I understand the third game as Josh Johnson showed San Francisco was the exception not the rule. The first two games though, Weatherford allows 8 runs in 6.1 innings and Pigott allows 8 in 7. That's two weeks in row those two have been sub-par. Lets hope this doesn't become a trend. The offense was nice but I don't know if it will show up against top pitchers.


If you're keeping track, that puts State at 12-4, 2-1. Though that is likely to drop to 12-5 as Samford is up 6-3 in the top of the ninth. Mid-week pitching, remember? It is going to bite us more than a couple of times this year. It hasn't been that promising of a start to the year, but its early yet. Who knows what will happen.


Update: Holy crap!! I guess I spoke too soon. Moreland comes in to pitch the ninth and picks up 2Ks and gets the third batter to ground out. In the bottom half, Rea, Turner, and Easley all get a RBI and Hardy scores on a throwing error. Hardy tied the game at 6 and Moreland scored the winning run on Powers' RBI to take the victory 7-6. Stuck my foot square in my mouth on that one didn't I. Thats alright, I'm happy to be wrong in this case.

State Headed to New York

For two hours last night, Mississippi State whipped FSU on both ends of the court. The scoreboard showed 86-71 in favor of MSU at the end, but the game really wasn't even that close, and thats a blowout. For the second game in a row, 5 or more Miss. State players scored in double figures. Against Bradley Gordon, Rhodes, Reginald Delk, Slater, and Stewart scored 20, 17, 15, 13, and 13 respectively. As an aside, I guess this would be a good time to apologize for not having a post on the Bradley game and the lack of posting in general. I went to Lexington for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and time just got away from me. It happens. This isn't my job after all. Anyway, moving along. Where were we? Right, right, double digit scorers.

Last night saw 6 Bulldogs reach double digits. Gordon, Rhodes, Slater, Hansbrough, Stewart, and Varnado scored 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 10. You have to like that 3 of them are freshman and 1 a sophomore. Makes you wish next year would hurry up and start already.

To be honest, this could have been so much worse for FSU. Their go to guy, Al Thornton was in foul trouble the whole game and only played 22 minutes because of it. That hurt them, but it was more than made up by the fact that Isaiah Swann had one of those nights and scored 31 points, going 9-13 behind the arc. He doesn't even average double digits on the season, it was just a fluke night for him. In addition, MSU was cold from three, going 7-30 (23.3%). Despite this, it was still a route.

Now Mississippi State will head to Madison Square Garden where they will play West Virginia in the semifinals. WVU's offense is different and difficult to defend. State can take them but it won't be easy.

Before we wrap this one up though, there is one thing I have to do. I probably shouldn't, but I'm going to anyway. After the game, I made my way over to a Florida St. message board I had been viewing over the last couple of days. I always like to get a perspective of the opponent from their own fans. It makes things more interesting. I had no intention of rubbing the loss in their faces and I didn't. Rubbing salt in the wound has never really been my thing. I'd rather observe. In any case, I'd like to share a couple of gems from that lovely board. Let the hilarity ensue.

Re: Mississippi State will make the dance next year! Reply
I doubt it, they are less talented then us by a fair amount.
Of course with Leonard Hamilton who cares.
Echefu, Douglas, Swann, and Rich's defensive efforts this game have been laughable.
Mississippi State is one of the worst offensive teams in the SEC and they are scoring at will on us. Shouldn't be surprised I suppose.

Hmm. Mississippi State averages 77.1 ppg on the year, and that is one of the worst in SEC? My goodness, I didn't realize there were 11 Loyola Marymount's in the league. Oh wait, there aren't. They are third in the SEC in scoring offense for all games, or second in league games only. Take your pick. Way to scout your opponent there big guy. May I suggest sticking to football, because you apparently know jack about basketball. Better luck next time though.

I hold a PhD in biomedical engineering...I'm fairly certain I have a bit more intellect than you.

Oh snap!!! I didn't realize that degree required you to know about the game of basketball. Nobody cares about your degree. It has no bearing in a basketball discussion. For all I know, you're just a guy with a PhD in biomedical engineering who doesn't even know what a 2-3 zone is.

Bulldogs Cruise Past MVSU, 82-63

In case you've been in a coma the past few days, Mississippi State lost to Arkansas 81-72 in the SEC semis and thus, not surprisingly, did not get into the NCAA tournament. They did however wind up getting a #1 seed in the NIT, and homecourt advantage up to the semifinals, and played Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday. Now I know nobody is thrilled about being in the NIT, but I think this can be a good experience for the team.

I'm not going to go into detail on this game. MVSU was just outmatched. As an example, Mississippi State had the clear size advantage in this game. Seriously, if you're smaller than MSU as a team, you're in some trouble. In any case, it wasn't expected to be a close game and it lived up to the billing despite MSU not shooting all that well. Gordon had 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists; Rhodes and Hansbrough had 21 and 15 respectively.

Bradley beat Providence in overtime, 90-78, Wednesday night and will be Miss. State's next opponent. This game will likely be much more difficult and could easily result in a MSU loss. They shoot an astounding .427 from 3pt range and have one player who is over 50% for the year. This is a guard-oriented team and like MVSU is one of the few teams Miss. St will have a size advantage over. On the season they're averaging a -7 rebounding margin, so I would expect State to control the paint but whether or not they can slow down the perimeter players will determine the winner.

How Sweet It Is

I'm not going to get a write-up of yesterday's amazing win over Kentucky to keep Mississippi State's season alive done in time. Sorry. They say a picture is worth a thousand words though so,
Words escape me.

MSU gets Arkansas today in the SEC semifinals as they were able to get by Vanderbilt. Get excited. I'm out til Monday or Tuesday.

Baseball Update

Well folks, I'll be away for the next 2-3 days and there is much that I need to catch up on so lets get to it. We'll get started with baseball. There has been six games since my first update and they haven't necessarily been all that encouraging.

3/2 Mississippi State vs. Troy: Last Friday MSU played Troy in their first game of the Cadence Bank Classic. Weatherford started and came away with the 2-1 win. Once again Weatherford looked good, striking out 7 and allowing 3 hits in 7 innings of work. That was the good. The bad is that all that good hitting in the first few games might have been a mirage. When State came up against good pitching for the first time the results, as you can tell, weren't too pretty.

3/3 Mississippi State vs. Michigan: Miss. State's first loss of the season was a 4-3 decision to Michigan. Pigott started but struggled mightily which is a tad worrisome. My gut says it was just a bad day though. He struckout 9 but allowed 9 hits and 4 runs in 8 innings. Again the bats were quieted as MSU got just 7 hits. They trailed 3-0 in the third and 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth. Two runs in the eighth cut the lead to 4-3, but MSU couldn't put anything together in the ninth and 4-3 was the final.

3/4 Mississippi State vs. Troy: MSU came away with a 12-4 victory. 11 hits, 8 RBIs, much better offensive performance but they weren't exactly facing Troy's ace. Josh Johnson was adequate as the starting pitcher, but my goodness, John Lalor is looking bad early on in the season. Gave up 5 hits and 3 runs in just 2 innings.

3/6 Mississippi State vs UAB: Well, they won 12-10. That's the good news. MSU got their scoring going again which is also good. Again, it's against weak pitching though. Show me something against tougher competition. Speaking of weak pitching. Tyler Whitney (started), Greg Houston, and Chad Crosswhite didn't exactly set the world on fire. 15 hits and 10 runs, not good.

3/7 Mississippi State vs Jacksonville St.: They won 11-9, but once again, some very suspect pitching. 14 hits and 9 runs to JSU? Come on. Jared Koon, Jesse Carver, and Ricky Bowen were responsible for this unfortunate performance. On the plus side of things, John Lalor was the bright side and maybe redeemed himself. 3 K's and 1 hit given up in 3.2 innings. A bright spot on an ugly day. Easly, Moreland, Turner and Laninfa looking like the offensive threats so far this year.

3/9 Mississippi State vs. Winthrop: The second loss of the year came at the hands of Winthrop who came from behind to win 7-6 in extra innings. Weatherford struggled allowing 9 hits and 3 runs and Crosswhite couldn't hold the lead in relief. 13 hits on the day for Winthrop. Surprising considering Weatherford started.

Bulldogs Dismantle Tide, Win West

Save for stretches at the beginning of both the first and second half, Mississippi State dominated Alabama in every phase of the game on Sunday to ultimately come away with a 91-67 win. For senior day, Rick Stansbury made a change to the starting lineup, starting senior Piotr Stelmach in place of Richard Delk. It was a nice gesture but probably was responsible for Alabama jumping out to an 8-2 lead as Stelmach simply could not keep up. After he exited the game though, it only took 3 minutes for MSU to tie the game at 10. From this point State would outscore Alabama 31-19 to take a 41-29 lead into the half. It looked like the game was had already gotten away from the Crimson Tide but to their credit they came out of the half with a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 43-41 at which point Stansbury quickly called a timeout to straighten his team out. Whatever he said worked as MSU proceeded to go on a 39-9 run which left them leading 82-50. Coach Stansbury began to call off the dogs at this point and State cruised to the 91-67 final.

This was just a marvelous performance by Mississippi State, probably the best they have played all year. Everyone played well but Ben Hansbrough and Jarvis Varnado deserve special mention. Varnado had by far his best game of the year and I would argue so did Ben. In just 10 minutes off the bench Varnado had 10 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 1 steal. Now that's what I call productive minutes. In regards to Hansbrough he was quite simply a wild man. He was everywhere, playing stifling defense, dishing out assists, grabbing rebounds, picking pockets, making big shots, etc. When the dust settled he found himself with 13 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals. Just an all around fantastic game.

Then of course the usual players also showed up big. Rhodes had 18 points and 7 boards and Reginald Delk put up 16 points even though he was 1-6 from behind the line. Richard Delk, while not doing much offensively, played tremendous defense as usual, coming up with a career high 3 blocks. Jamont Gordon had 11 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists. Definitely not his best scoring day, but he was terrific in finding the open man and just letting the game come to him.

With the win MSU tied Ole Miss for 1st place in the West and gained a share of the division title. Tiebreakers give Miss. State the 1 seed in the SEC tournament though. They'll play the winner of Alabama vs. Kentucky on Friday. If they can play like they did Sunday, they have a good shot of making it to Sunday. That's a big if though.

Mississippi State Blows by MVSU 13-2

On Tuesday Mississippi State hosted Mississippi Valley State and had little trouble overcoming them to notch their 4th win of the season. Freshman Tyler Whitney pitched 5 innings over which he scattered 4 hits, struck out 3, and gave up one run. State continued their stellar hitting with 19 in this game. Brandon Turner led the way with 3 hits while Mitch Moreland led with this 3 RBIs. Also for the 3rd time in 4 games, Miss State had no errors.

Another game against weak competition. Once again not too much to be taken from this game aside from another strong showing offensively. Whether that will be sustained against better teams is yet to be seen. We'll get a better idea of what we have this year soon enough though. MSU will be hosting Troy (8-3) and Michigan(3-1) in the Cadence Bank Classic over the weekend. Both won their respective conferences last year and are supposed to be just as talented this season. We'll see how they do.

Oh yes, It's March

Just wanted to give a little publicity out. Card Chronicle is giving wrap-ups of the entire conference tourney picture everyday. Can't get enough of the Big South tournament? Having trouble keeping up with who won in the Horizon League last night? Obsessed with mid-majors and seriously annoyed ESPN isn't showing their quarterfinals? Then this is the place to go.

A Few Minor Changes

The domain name is going to be changing Saturday afternoon. The new one should be www.mstatecentral.blogspot.com. Bookmark it. As you might guess the name is changing to mstatecentral as well. Everything else is the same, just a little change of address.

Mississippi State Opens Season With 3-game Sweep

MSU opened the baseball season last Friday with a 3 game series against Murray State, who was 0-2 entering the weekend. Sophomore pitcher Aaron Weatherford started the first game and racked up a career high 11 strikeouts in 6 innings of work. Chad Crosswhite, Ricky Bowen, and Jesse Carver all threw pitches with Crosswhite striking out 3 of the 4 batters he faced and earning the save. Senior designated hitter Brian LaNinfa connected on 4 hits and had 4 RBIs in what was a 16 hit performance by MSU. Edward Easley, Jeff Flagg, Turner, and Sneed all had multiple hit days in the 10-5 victory.

The bats were hot again on Saturday in what would be a 13-1 victory for the Bulldogs. 22 hits was the final count with two run home runs coming from Flagg, Connor Powers, and Easley. Junior pitcher Justin Pigott got the start and went 7 innings. He struck out 4, scattered 4 hits, and allowed only one earned run. Last year he led the SEC with a 1.66 ERA and looks to be ready to keep up that pace this season. Freshman Greg Houston pitched the 8th and retired his three batters. Mitch Moreland came out for the 9th and struck out 3 while walking one.

Sunday would prove to be more difficult as Mississippi State would have to come back in order to gain the 17-9 win. Senior Josh Johnson started at pitcher and struggled mightily. He pitched just 3 innings striking out 5 but giving up 6 hits and a 4 run 3rd. John Lalor relieved him but didn't do too much better, surrendering a 3-run home run in the 4th which gave Murray State a 7-0 lead. Then the floodgates opened. The Bulldogs got 1, 3, and 3 runs in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings respectively to tie the game at 7-7. Murray State would get 2 more runs and 4 hits in the 7th off of John Lalor and then Ricky Bowen when he came in as relief. An 8 run 7th inning sealed the game for Miss. State with Flagg bringing in the go ahead run.

To be frank, Murray State isn't all that good so don't be looking to take to much from the weekend. Preliminary reports are that hitting will be improved from last year and Mississippi State has two quality starting pitchers in Pigott and Weatherford. After those two things appear to get dicey though.

Tray Rutland Transferring

Spring practice started up on Monday for Mississippi State. You're not going to be getting extensive coverage here as basketball is what my focus is on at this time of year. If anything of note crops up though, I'll make sure to spread the word. This week the big news had nothing to do with the practices on the field. It was the announcement on Tuesday that backup QB and redshirt sophomore Tray Rutland would be transferring to another school. No real reason has been given, and probably won't be, outside of the usual coachspeak which tells us nothing. Rutland started in two games last year and played in five after Michael Henig broke his collarbone in the first game of the season. He was 20-48 for 151 yards and 4 interceptions on the season. While there is at least a fair chance he was going to end up third string this year with Josh Riddell coming in, this is still a big blow to the team. QB depth is now painfully thin again as two of the three quarterback who played last year are gone, Omarr Conner due to graduation and Tray Rutland due to transfer. That leaves MSU with arguably thinner depth than last year. Henig was the only QB on the depth chart with any experience, but they at least had the option of moving Conner from WR back to QB if needed, which it was. Riddell does have two years of JUCO experience and was very effective, but that is still a far cry from SEC football. After him is either Ty Evans or Zack Harrington, and that right there makes up all of my knowledge of those two. It's a good thing the coaching staff managed to bring in Riddell. There is a very good chance that Henig is going to be broken in half by LSU the first game of the season and I shudder to think about that depth chart without Riddell at that point.

What the Hell Happened??

I'm going to be honest with you, I have no idea how Mississippi State let this game slip away. Well I guess I do, they couldn't buy a basket. 31.7 FG% on the game and 1-15 (6.7%) from three. That is atrocious. Was Arkansas' defense just too stifling to overcome? No. There was nothing spectacular about it. MSU got plenty of open looks, and proceeded to miss all of them. Jamont Gordon and Charles Rhodes carried them with 23 and 22 respectively, while the rest of the team could only manage 13 points.

This is just so frustrating. Miss St. is better than those clowns. There is no reason they should have lost. Rebounds were basically equal, Arkansas had 9 more turnovers, MSU had 14 more points in the paint, etc. The shooting was simply atrocious and not necessarily due to taking bad shots, although Slater had a few of those as usual. This has just been such a horribly frustrating season. Far too many games have slipped away that should have been won. Mississippi State better be kicking some ass next year to make up for it.

This year isn't over yet though and amazingly enough Miss. State can still win the West. 4 teams are currently tied for 1st.......at 7-8. Yes, I'm serious. So the winner of the West is going to be 8-8 this year. That is ridiculous. The Bulldogs actually have the easiest road to get there, beat Alabama on Sunday and they will end up #1.