news
view as list
After MSU’s season-ending loss to North Carolina, coach Rick Stansbury was asked about what he had coming back next season.
“Way too early for that,” he said. “You guys know what we have coming back.”
Hey, it’s never too early to look ahead, not for sports writers, anyway. And Stansbury was right, we do know who’s back, as do you.
Two players, shooting guard Barry Stewart and center Jarvis Varnado, must be replaced. So three starters return, but will all three be starting come November? Let’s take a look at the 2010-11 team by position. (Note: I’m using this year’s classifications. Another note: There’s a decent chance I’m out in left field on some of these, so I welcome your input.)
• Point guard: Obviously this job belongs to Dee Bost after two strong seasons. He knows how to take care of the ball and distribute it, is a demon in transition, and can light it up when need be. The problem this season was the number of minutes he logged – 34.9 per game, three-plus minutes more than his freshman year. If backup Twany Beckham can come back from his hip surgeries – and prove to be a better caretaker of the offense than he was last year – this position will be very strong.
• Shooting guard: It’s going to be tough to replace Stewart’s defense and toughness here, and it’s a spot that’s up for grabs. The leading candidates: junior Phil Turner, freshman Shaun Smith and incoming junior college transfer Brian Bryant. (It should be noted that Bryant plays the point, too.) Turner is the only Bulldog with game experience – Smith missed the year with injuries. Bryant is an intriguing prospect, though, and with Turner being such a versatile asset, Stansbury might have a hard time locking him into one position. Riley Benock will continue to give solid minutes off the bench.
• Wing: Ravern Johnson saw his 3-point shot abandon him at times in his junior season. In SEC play, he hit just 32.6 percent from downtown. But you figure that shot will return with time, and he developed a nice mid-range game this year. Johnson’s the kind of guy who can go off at any time and should start here again. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Smith here some, and Romero Osby has played the three a bit.
• Forward: Kodi Augustus, to me, did not live up to expectations this season. He averaged 8.9 points per game, disappeared at times on offense, and was a defensive liability. He’s got the tools, but despite his mea culpa early in the season following that anti-Stansbury rant, he still doesn’t seem to have fully bought in. I could see him being supplanted in the starting lineup by Osby, who’s tougher inside and is a better perimeter shooter. While freshman Wendell Lewis got his minutes at the center position this season out of necessity, he seems better suited to back up the four spot.
• Center: I’m assuming that once his nine-game suspension is up, freshman Renardo Sidney will take over the pivot. He can certainly play the four – he has a nice outside game – but his size and athleticism should make him a tough matchup for most opposing fives. And he could split time between both positions if 7-foot-1 John Riek continues to develop and the gritty Elgin Bailey gets over his ankle injury.
It was a bitter end to the careers of MSU seniors Barry Stewart and Jarvis Varnado, but Saturday’s 76-74 loss to North Carolina in the second round of the NIT can’t tarnish the legacy these two left behind.
In today’s opinion offering, I write about what Varnado called “one hell of a ride.” Stewart, a shooting guard pressed into backup point guard duty at times throughout his career, and Varnado, the NCAA’s all-time leading shot blocker (564), are all over the MSU record books. And they’ve been there every night – each played in 141 games. Number of games missed: zero.
Their career numbers:
• Stewart – 11.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals, 37.9% field goals, 35.9% 3-pointers, 74.3 percent free throws.
• Varnado – 10.0 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.0 blocks, 58.9% field goals, 59.5% free throws.
Both got a standing ovation from the Humphrey Coliseum crowd when exiting the floor for the last time. It’s sad that this season of promise didn’t pan out like they’d hoped, but there can be no doubt that if the Bulldogs follow the example set by Stewart and Varnado, greater success awaits them in the future.
Congratulations to both guys. After covering them for two years, I can say without a doubt that they are class acts.
• LADY BULLDOGS GO DANCING: Also in today’s Journal is a look at the Lady Bulldogs and their Congolese trio, who are playing Middle Tennessee State right now in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The game is on ESPN and ESPN360.com. The winner gets Ohio State, which beat St. Francis (Penn.) earlier.
• DIAMOND DOGS DROP SERIES: MSU’s baseball team lost to No. 6 Florida again Saturday, 5-4, thus dropping the opening SEC series of the season. So State is 0-2 behind its freshmen starters, Kendall Graveman and Chris Stratton, although the latter pitched well yesterday, yielding just one run on four hits in six innings. Chad Girodo took the loss. The series finale has just gotten under way.
Some postgame reaction from Mississippi State’s 76-74 loss to North Carolina in the second round of the NIT. Let’s start with the MSU seniors.
Senior center Jarvis Varnado
• On his MSU career: “The fans have been great all my four years here. Just the atmosphere and environment, they love their Bulldogs, and we love them back.”
• On Larry Drew II’s game-winning layup: “He was coming at me, I knew he was gonna take the shot. He made one hell of a layup.”
Senior guard Barry Stewart
• On his MSU career: “It’s something you can’t describe. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”
• On Drew’s layup: “We just wanted to stay in front of him, but we didn’t.”
MSU coach Rick Stansbury
• On Stewart and Varnado: “So I hurt for our two seniors, Barry and Jarvis, who I think it’s very obvious have been very special players for us. … Couldn’t have asked to be around better people, better people to coach than those two guys have been. And they will be truly missed.”
• More on Stewart and Varnado: “I’ve counted on those guys defensively every night. The ball may not always bounce for them offensively, but defensively most nights, you can always count on them to show up.”
• On Drew’s layup: “It’s just one of those plays, guys, in basketball that happens. Nobody can draw it up and shoot it like that.”
UNC coach Roy Williams
• On the finish: “Needless to say we feel very fortunate. We were very lucky.”
• On Drew’s layup: “Then when they went to the free throw line there at the end, I told Larry just to push it. After we played Georgia Tech at our place, he missed one at the end that was contested, and I told him at that point that he would get one of these later and he’d make it and it’d be a game winner.”
UNC junior forward Will Graves
• On climbing out of an early 16-4 hole: “They hit us right in the mouth. It was just more of focusing and doing what we prepared the last couple of days for them.”
• On his banked-in 3-pointer to give UNC 74-72 lead: “I was just shooting it like I was in practice or any other day. When it came off my hands, it felt confident, but God did the rest.”
UNC sophomore guard Larry Drew II
• On his layup: " I feel like I can get to the paint any time I want to. I got to the paint, and I saw Jarvis on my right side, and I just wanted to get it up there and give it a chance to go in."
• The buzz: Boy, another day, another heartbreak for Mississippi State. Larry Drew II hit a driving layup over senior Jarvis Varnado with 2 seconds left to give North Carolina a win in a thrilling second-round NIT game. His heroics came after MSU’s other senior, Barry Stewart, drained two free throws with 8.9 seconds left to tie the game. MSU ends its season at 24-12, and it was the fourth time overall, including third in a row, that the Bulldogs were put out of the NIT on a last-second shot (Alcorn State in 1979; Tulsa in 2001; West Virginia in 2007).
• Key stretch: MSU, which saw a 16-4 lead disappear, went ahead 71-68 on a Dee Bost jumper with 1:37 to go. It was State’s last field goal. An arching, banked-in Will Graves 3-pointer gave UNC (18-16) a 74-72 lead with :32 left, and Stewart was blocked on a layup try with :13 left before getting a second chance on the free throws. Graves had six points in the final 1:16.
• Key stats: MSU was outscored in the paint, 42-14, and had zero fast-break points. UNC shot 48.5 percent from the field to MSU’s 41.4 percent. UNC out-rebounded State, 41-32.
• MVP: Stewart earned this honor, leading the team in scoring and hitting those clutch free throws to tie the game late. He shot 5 of 13 from the floor, 3 of 7 from deep, and 5 of 7 from the free throw line.
• MSU leaders: Stewart 18 points; Varnado 14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks; Bost 14 points, 4 assists, 3 steals; Ravern Johnson 13 points, 6 rebounds.
• UNC leaders: Graves 17 points; John Henson 12 points, 8 rebounds.
• Highlight reel: On a fast break, Varnado snagged a Stewart lob – which wasn’t quite on the mark – and somehow was able to reach the rim for a crowd-pleasing slam dunk. Can you say wingspan? It tied the game 41-41 and was part of a 16-2 MSU run early in the second half.
• Bottom line: A tough season ended on a tough note, as did the fine careers of Stewart and Varnado. Lots of people think the Bulldogs deserved an NCAA bid, but it was nice to see Stewart and Varnado get a standing ovation as they left the Humphrey Coliseum floor one last time. Varnado, by the way, finished the season with 170 blocks, tying his own single-season SEC record.
OK, so this isn’t your typical North Carolina team. If Mississippi State beats the Tar Heels today in the second round of the NIT, it will have beaten a mediocre team. But that name on the front of the jersey seems to make UNC’s 17-16 record hard to see, and there is so much young talent on this team that one is inclined to think it could all just click at any moment, and boom – the beast has awakened.
It’s a bit of a mystery why UNC is so down this year. There are seven McDonald’s All-Americans on this team, and you’d think that would add up to more than 17 wins. But like MSU, the Heels have dealt with a ton of injuries. Ed Davis (13.4 ppg, 9.6 rpg) has been out with a broken wrist and won’t play today, starter Marcus Ginyard missed some time, and key reserves Tyler Zeller and David Wear missed time, too. In all, coach Roy Williams said his top nine or 10 players have missed a combined 38 games this season.
“I thought going into the preseason, I even said it to everybody, I thought our depth up front would be a plus for us,” Williams said. “And then as soon as we got through the non-conference is when we lost Z. It was a big blow for us, and we lost Ed, and then we lost Dave, and our depth up front was really hurt.”
North Carolina finished 10th in the 12-team ACC with a 5-11 record. The defending national champions became cellar dwellers. MSU coach Rick Stansbury warns not to be fooled.
“You can’t look at their record and get a real impression of what they are,” he said. “They are very talented and big on that back line. If you say what’s suspect, you might say their guard play. That doesn’t, though, mean it’s not good guard play. It just probably wasn’t a lottery-pick good guard play.”
The key for MSU: Forget about the name on the front of the jersey.
“You know that name has great tradition, and that’s fine,” Stansbury said. “You know if you’re playing against that name, then that means you are playing against one of the best programs in the history of college basketball.”
Mississippi State’s baseball team opens up SEC play later today at Florida (6:30 p.m., FSN). The Bulldogs (11-6) will see just how ready their newcomers are for the big time. The starting lineup – pitcher included – for today could include four junior college transfers and two true freshmen, including starting pitcher Kendall Graveman. Another true freshman, Tupelo’s Cris Stratton, will start Saturday.
The new guys had some issues early on this season, particularly in the field, but coach John Cohen likes the direction they’re headed.
“I’ll put our shortstop, Jonathan Ogden, defensively with any shortstop in the SEC. He’s really good. He has started really making some plays for us. … Our third baseman, (Nick) Vickerson, has done a great job at third base defending. He has really done a nice job. … I feel like our infield is really starting to pay well defensively. It’s fun to watch those guys compete.”
But how will they fare in the SEC? MSU has finished dead last in the league each of the past two seasons, and No. 6-ranked Florida (13-3) is the defending Eastern Division champ. Cohen said he doesn’t see much difference between teams in the SEC, and it sounded like he was including his own squad in that discussion.
“I think Florida’s very good. Are they better than Oklahoma? Are they better than UCLA?” asked Cohen, whose team lost to both those clubs earlier this season. “Are they better than anybody else in the league? That remains to be seen. There’s just a hair difference between the top of our league and the bottom of our league, and I don’t even think there is a bottom of our league at this point. Anybody playing in this league is as good as anybody else.”
The only two seniors likely to start are outfielder Luke Adkins and first baseman Connor Powers. Both are playing well: Adkins is batting .345 with a team-leading 18 runs scored; Powers leads the Bulldogs in average (.409), home runs (8) and RBIs (32). Powers was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers last year but decided to return to Starkville.
The key to his improvement this year?
“Just trying to relax and just hit pitches that are strikes. I know that sounds really simple. I’ve always been a really aggressive hitter, and it’s always been hard for me not to swing at pretty much everything. I’m really trying to make sure I get a good pitch to hit.” He’s struck out just 10 times in 66 at-bats.
The Bulldogs will need Adkins and Powers to keep up the pace as the newbies come along. “He’s obviously taken some big swings for us this spring thus far,” Cohen said of Powers. “He’s been a great leader as far as the other guys, and quite frankly we need that, because we don’t have a lot of older guys in the program.”
Color North Carolina coach Roy Williams impressed by Mississippi State, which will host the Tar Heels at 11 a.m. Saturday (ESPN) in the second round of the NIT. Williams’ team, the defending NCAA national champion, has had a rough go of it this season with injuries and inexperience, entering this game with a 17-16 mark after dispatching William & Mary in the first round, 80-72.
Williams has watched a handful of MSU games this year, including the two heart-breaking losses to Kentucky.
“The crazy thing is I watched both the Kentucky games, and they either could have or should have both of those games,” he said. “It was almost like the stars and the moon were aligned, it wasn’t going to happen, because it would’ve had to be something weird for them not to win.”
His quickie scouting report on the Bulldogs (24-11): “It’s a well-rounded team. You’ve got to think about (Jarvis) Varnado inside, he’s such a relentless rebounder and even on the offensive end gets his hands on so many balls. … Then their ability to shoot the 3-point shot; four guys in the game all the time that can shoot the 3-point shot and shoot it effectively. And then the other part of it is I think they really guard you.”
Williams said he’s run across MSU coach Rick Stansbury many times, and while they’re not close friends, Williams has respect for his counterpart.
“You don’t survive in that league unless you can coach. He’s been there a long time and had a great run. … I think he’s a big-time quality coach.”
UNC is a No. 4 seed in this tournament. Williams said it hasn’t been a problem getting guys from last year’s championship team to get motivated for the NIT.
“It’s been a tough year for us, we’re just happy to be playing,” he said.
Williams also raved about MSU point guard Dee Bost, who I’ll be writing about for tomorrow’s Daily Journal. And I’ll have more on the Tar Heels later in my Know the Foe entry.
Here’s your stat of the day from Mississippi State’s baseball team: Freshmen have accounted for 52.9 percent of innings thrown this season for the Bulldogs. Don’t expect that number to dip once SEC play starts.
In fact, two freshmen will draw starts at Florida this weekend: Kendall Graveman (1-0, 3.78 ERA) on Friday and Tupelo’s Chris Stratton (2-2, 2.95) on Saturday. Both are right-handers. Sophomore lefty Nick Routt (1-1, 7.27), a weekend starter last season, will take the hill Sunday.
“I don’t know if there’s a team in the Southeastern Conference who’s going freshman, freshman, sophomore on the weekends,” MSU coach John Cohen said this morning. “When we took over this program, we knew this is where we were heading. Everybody else you’re competing against, they’re going to go junior, senior, maybe a younger guy, but that’s just where we are. It’s kind of fun to be here, because you know it’s going to pay off in the future.”
Stratton has thrown more innings (21.1) than any MSU pitcher this season. Besides him and Graveman, Cohen will use several freshmen in relief, like Luke Bole (9.1 innings), Ben Bracewell (8.0 innings), Chad Girodo (15.0 innings), and C.C. Watson (6.1 innings). Bole and Girodo have both drawn starts.
So how did Cohen decide on his weekend rotation?
“It’s based on who’s pitched the best in tough situations. And there’s no doubt that those guys have pitched really well. Graveman has pitched outstanding for us. Stratton is pitching very, very well. That’s based on the merit of what they have done so far this year.”
Cohen added that the rotation could change based on performance.
Friday’s first game goes off at 6:30 p.m. and will air on Fox Sports Net. More on the young Bulldogs in tomorrow’s Daily Journal.
Join the MSU Dugout Club!
I tend to be cynical when it comes to college coaches, because you don’t always know when they’re being completely honest. Bland interviews filled with clichéd answers leave me rolling my eyes. But I haven’t gotten that vibe with Rick Stansbury.
Oh sure, he trots out his usual set of sayings and whatnot. “Defense and rebounding,” “hitting shots makes the world go round,” and his personal favorite, “there’s no substitute for experience.” The thing is, though, it never sounds rote when he says these things. He believes them with all his heart. I’m sure other coaches believe the clichés they utter, but they don’t always sound like it.
Anyway, my point is, Stansbury isn’t afraid to share his true feelings. And in today’s opinion offering, I examine what he’s said the past few days regarding the controversy surrounding Sunday’s loss to Kentucky and the NCAA tournament’s snub of the Bulldogs. Stansbury, at the risk of being punished by the SEC, spoke his mind about a non-call at the end of regulation in the SEC title game. He spoke up for his constituency, not to mention his players. And y’all have adored him for it.
(For the record, I still haven’t heard back from the SEC on Stansbury’s comments. Apparently their policy now is to not comment on such matters.)
• AFTER FURTHER REVIEW: Some Kentucky fans have been trying to say that it was a good non-call. But as the fine folks at Mr. SEC explain, that’s not the case. A thorough examination of the play shows that it should have indeed been a lane violation on UK. Confirmation from an objective source is always a good thing. (And let’s not forget, the SEC has already admitted a violation should’ve been called against the Wildcats.)
• NIT BRACKET – WRECKED! So I went 10-6 on my picks for the first-round NIT games. Had some close, close calls, and most of them went against me.
I missed on St. John’s-Memphis (two-point game), UConn-Northeastern (two points), South Florida-N.C. State (one point), and the big upset – Jacksonville over No. 1 seed Arizona State (one point).
One bracket wrecked, one to go.
Speaking of which, be sure to play our Bud Light March to the Championship. Hurry, the Madness starts soon.
Nothing like a punch to the groin to wake you up. Just ask Dee Bost, who last night scored 15 of his 18 points after taking a cheap shot to his nether regions from Jackson State’s Phillip Williams. That guy was summarily ejected and earned a technical foul on his way out the door. It proved to be a turning point in MSU’s 81-67 first-round NIT win. It was only a 39-33 Bulldog lead when that happened, but the incident sparked a MSU big run.
As my esteemed colleague, Paul Jones, notes in his game story, the Bulldogs overcame a sluggish start to earn a second-round matchup with North Carolina (17-16), the defending NCAA national champs. Game time is 11 a.m. Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum (ESPN).
It’ll be the Tar Heels’ first trip to Starkville, so it will be a special night. I know it’s spring break, but hopefully the fans will pack it out. I’ll have more on the matchup later in the week.
• QUALITY LOSSES? Mike Herndon has a column that asks a pertinent question: Should “quality losses” be considered when assembling the 65-team NCAA tournament field? His example: Mississippi State, which as you know lost twice to No. 2-ranked Kentucky (in overtime), including in the SEC Tournament final on Sunday. By the way, I’ll have a column on the Bulldogs for tomorrow’s Daily Journal.
• VARIOUS & SUNDRY ITEMS: I never did hear back from the SEC concerning MSU coach Rick Stansbury‘s criticism of the officiating late in Sunday’s loss. So I guess we’ll hear of a punishment when they get ready to announce it. … Just got off a teleconference with several SEC women’s coaches, including MSU’s Sharon Fanning-Otis, whose Lady Bulldogs take on Middle Tennessee State on Sunday in the first round of the NCAA tourney. More on them in a few days. … The MSU baseball team plays host to Mississippi Valley State tonight, then opens SEC play this weekend at Florida.
