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
By Bud L. Ellis
Last year’s SEC men’s basketball tournament champions look like they might raise the trophy again this March.
But Mississippi State isn’t the only conference team off to a great start so far in 2009-10. In fact, looking ahead to the SEC tournament on March 11-14 at The Sommet Center in Nashville, six of the conference’s 12 schools have five losses or less.
The Bulldogs are 15-5, 3-2 in conference play. That’s good for second in the SEC West behind state rival Ole Miss. The Rebels are 16-4 overall and 4-2 in league action.
In the SEC East, the top four teams are a combined 65-13 this season. First-place Vanderbilt is the only SEC team still perfect in conference play, at 5-0 in league games and 16-3 overall. Kentucky, which spent this week ranked No. 1 in the nation, is 19-1 overall and 4-1 in the SEC. The Wildcats’ lone loss came to South Carolina on Tuesday.
Florida is 15-5 this season, 4-2 in the league. That’s good for third in the East. Tennessee is fourth, 3-2 in the league and 15-4 overall.
Even the teams outside of the top six have had their moments. Georgia has just one SEC win, but it was a blowout of the Vols last Saturday. South Carolina’s upset of Kentucky moved it to 3-3 in league play.
It’s a wide-open field heading into this year’s tournament. Certainly the defending champs look good to this point, but so too do several other teams.
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Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 1:59 pm by bud
Tags: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Southeastern Conference, Tennessee, The Sommet Center, Vanderbilt
