Fifth in a series previewing SEC basketball teams.
HOOVER, Ala. — It’s been seven months since Kentucky’s 75-74 overtime victory against Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament final, but the pain lingers for Rick Stansbury.
“I don’t know if I’ve gotten over that game or ever will,” Stansbury, in his 13th season as the Bulldogs’ coach, said at SEC media day. “It goes down as the toughest loss of my career. If there’s a tougher one than that, I don’t want it.”
Mississippi State led 64-62 with 4.9 seconds left, but Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins scored on a putback at the buzzer to send the game into overtime after a missed free throw by Eric Bledsoe and a missed shot by John Wall.
Television replays showed Wall stepped into the lane before Bledsoe’s free throw hit the rim, but officials missed the lane violation that would have given Mississippi State possession and possibly the victory and an accompanying automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
Stansbury was critical of the officiating in his postgame comments and drew a $30,000 fine from the SEC.
Making it worse for Stansbury, the Bulldogs had to settle for an NIT bid - where they lost to North Carolina in the second round - instead of playing in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in nine years.
“I’ve tried to move on as best I can,” Stansbury said. “But it hasn’t been easy.”
Stansbury has led Mississippi State to five SEC West titles, and the Bulldogs are favored to win the division this year in most media polls. But the team projected to win the West isn’t the team Mississippi State will put on the court to start the season.
Two of the Bulldogs’ top players, junior point guard Dee Bost and sophomore forward Renardo Sidney, will begin the season serving NCAA mandated suspensions.
Sidney, who sat out of last season waiting to be cleared by the NCAA, must miss the first nine games because theNCAA ruled he accepted illegal benefits before coming to Mississippi State.
Bost, who averaged 13.0 points and 5.2 assists per game last season, will miss the first 14 games for withdrawing his name late from the NBA Draft entry list.
“Nobody’s going to cancel any games. Nobody feels sorry for us,” Stansbury said. “We’ve got to find a way to keep winning.”
The return of junior forward Elgin Bailey from an ankle injury will help the Bulldogs, and they have returning starters in senior guard Ravern Johnson and senior forward Kodi Augustus.
“We don’t have Dee and Sid, but the whole team understands the situation,” Bailey said. “We’re all picking up the slack. We have to set the tone early so that when they come back it’s just more of the same.”
Sidney, 6-10, 270 pounds, and Bailey, 6-8, 276, will give the Bulldogs a powerful inside presence they’ve lacked in recent seasons.
Jarvis Varnado finished his Mississippi State career last season as the NCAA’s career leader in blocked shots, but he carried 230 pounds on his 6-9 frame.
“Jarvis couldn’t set a screen the way Elgin and Renardo can,” Stansbury said. “They’ll jar your teeth.”
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Sports, Pages 19 on 10/27/2010