Mississippi State didn’t need extra rest en route to SEC title
By Bud L. Ellis
As the third seed out of the SEC West, the Mississippi State Bulldogs didn’t get the luxury of an opening-day bye in last year’s SEC tournament.
The Bulldogs didn’t need the rest. Ripping off four wins in four days, Mississippi State won the conference tournament, beating heavily favored Tennessee in the championship game, 64-61.
Mississippi State’s run to its third SEC championship started on the opening day of the tournament, when the Bulldogs downed defending tournament champion Georgia 79-60. In the quarterfinals, the Bulldogs pulled away from South Carolina, the second seed from the SEC East, 82-68.
The Bulldogs were the lowest seed left entering the quarterfinals. But that didn’t matter, as Mississippi State downed SEC West top seed LSU 67-57. That set the stage for the title game showdown with SEC East top seed Tennessee, in which the Bulldogs prevailed to earn the conference title and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Junior Jarvis Varnado, the conference’s defensive player of the year in 2008 and 2009, won the tournament MVP honors.
This year the tournament moves to the Sommet Center in Nashville, March 11-14.
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Friday, February 5, 2010 at 11:24 pm by bud
Tags: Georgia, Jarvis Varnado, LSU, Mississippi State, Sommet Center, South Carolina, Southeastern Conference, St. Pete Times Forum, Tennessee
