For Whom the Cowbell Tolls

FWTCT Greatest Games Bracket, RD1: 1996 vs. Cincinnati VS. 2002 vs. Kentucky

2012-05-17T21:00:11Z

Yesterday thecristilmethod detailed our first, 1st round game: '04 vs. Bama vs. '63 vs. Loyola. Don't expect the same kind of amazing graphics and videos here, because well, as my pen name suggest - I am lame and don't know how to do stuff. On to the matchup....

1996 vs. (2 seed - #7 in AP) Cincinnati

If for some reason you were unaware that Mississippi State made the Final Four its one and only time in 1996, well, this is the Elite 8 game that proceeded that. Here's a picture of Erick Dampier on the blocks with 2nd team All-American Danny Fortson courtesy of LIFE:

Like some of the other big wins during the '96 run, Mississippi State got out to an early lead with a hot start. But coming out of halftime Cincy made a run to cut the lead to three, and Dampier got his fourth foul with 11 minutes to go. That's when freshman Tyrone Washington came in to bang around with Fortson.

Washington averaged 1.8 PPG during the regular season, but he managed seven with four rebounds and kept the Bearcats from taking over while Dampier was on the bench. State eventually tore the game open behind Dontae Jones' 23 points and won 73-63; advancing to the Final Four.

2002 vs. #6 Kentucky

After the above game, there were no big basketball victories between then and now: 2002 vs. UK. The program sank a bit, and this game was this official 'coming back to relevance party' for MSU.

Mario Austin went off in this game, here's a picture of him doing so...

Yikes. He had 32 points and 8 rebounds...plus a big play, but I'll get to that in a sec.

Kentucky, led by Tayshaun Price, jumped out to a 21-2 lead in the game. They had a 40-24 halftime lead and a 48-32 lead with 15 minutes to play. State's intensity forced UK turnovers and the Dawgs battled their way back into the game. The day belonged to Mario Austin, and with :07 left he was unguarded as he knocked down his first career 3-pointer (and only one that season) to tie the game and send it into overtime.

In OT, MSU's momentum sealed the victory 74-69.

Poll

So, which one do you think was the greater game?

Dogs and Cats Invade the Diamond

2012-05-17T20:00:26Z

When the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Kentucky Wildcats meet on the diamond at Dudy-Noble Field, both squads will play with a great bit on the line.

The Wildcats come to Starkville hoping to secure their first SEC crown since now MSU coach John Cohen led Kentucky to the title in 2006. The championship would secure a first round bye for the Wildcats in the SEC tournament.

Mississippi State currently finds itself in a tangle with a cluster of teams, and they could quickly rise in the standings with a few wins this weekend.

In order to do so, the Bulldogs, who have struggled offensively will have to scratch out runs against a quality pitching staff.

"Kentucky has three lefthanders starting for them on the mound," said Kyle Tucker of the Courier Journal. "Littrel has a 2.22 era and is 8-0. A lot of teams throw their best guy on Friday, but he has been their Sunday guy. He is their series closer."

The woes of the Maroon and White at the plate could be amplified in this series because the Wildcats have only suffered one defeat when they have led after the sixth inning. The Bulldogs must score early and often and keep in front of Kentucky.

"The relief pitching has been significantly better than it was a year ago," said Tucker.

Trevor Gott (3-0) leads the way out of the bullpen with a 2.79 ERA and nine saves.

The Wildcats have matched strong pitching with hitting this year as well. Kentucky averages nearly seven runs a game, and the mode of their scores is 10+.

The Bulldogs will counter their bats with Chris Stratton tonight and Kendall Graveman tomorrow. That TBA fellow gets the Saturday start. Also, Jonathan Holder has thrived as the closer, and that role will be vital if the Bulldogs get ahead.

Softball Bulldogs to Battle Cougars in Regional Action

2012-05-17T15:30:02Z

The Mississippi State Bulldogs (33-22) start their march in the NCAA tournament this afternoon in Eugene, Ore. against the BYU Cougars (43-13), the champions of the WAC, in regional action today at 5 CT. In what could be one of the best regionals, the Bulldogs will face a tricky foe right off the bat.

BYUtv play-by-play announcer Robbie Bullough said the Bulldogs will face a team that is accustomed to winning and playing at this level.

"This is the eight straight year they (BYU) have won forty or more games and the eighth straight year they have made the tournament," said Bullough"This is nothing new to them. They have only been to the super regionals once. It should be a good matchup. Both teams are just within a couple in the RPI. It should be a really fun matchup."

The Cougar offense can pose problems for teams, especially if the top of the line up comes to the plate to start an inning according to Bullough. He said that the line up is set up to get runners on base for clean up hitter Delaney Willard, the WAC player of the year who has 18 homers and 88 RBIs on the season.

"Delaney Willard, as a senior, kind of came out of nowhere," said Bullough. "She was hitting .500 for most of the season. She ended up breaking the WAC single season record for RBIs, and she is second in the country in RBIs. She is able to get the hits and get the power with homeruns."

The Cougars' talent does not end in the batters' box. The team also boasts talent inside the circle with a pitching staff that has an ERA that hovers around two. The Cougars have leaned most on Tori Almond and Hannah Howell.

"Sometimes, they can get a rough start where they walk the first couple of batters and get pulled in the first and second inning, but if they have control, this is a team that does not give up a lot of runs," said Bullough.

One interesting note in the series is that BYU coach Gordon Eakin serves as a hitting coach for the U.S. national team while Mississippi State coach Vann Stuedeman is known for her work with pitchers.

The Bulldog staff led by Stephanie Becker (18-10), who enters the tournament play with a 2.49, will be tasked with keeping the Cougars off of the bases to minimize the damage.

Offensively, Brittany Bell, Jessica Cooley, and Ka'ili Smith, all three potential All-SEC players, will try to crack the BYU pitching staff. With the BYU pitchers being subject to early struggles, the three who all bat in the top five of the line up may get to a starter early.

Smith boasts a .493 on base percentage, Cooley has slugged 15 homers, and Bell leads the team with a .381 batting average. Sam Lenahan, who owns a .329 average, bats in the top part of the order as well.

Click here to listen to the full interview with Robbie Bullough from the Daily Grind.

@justinrsutton

1903: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Steal Their Coach

2012-05-17T13:01:17Z

By 1903, Mississippi A&M fans had been all over the emotional block with their football team. From not winning a game in two years to the disbanding of the program to winning a few games before slipping backwards, they had seen it all. Several captains and coaches had come and gone, and the Aggie faithful wondered what to do next.

In a moment that had to be as shocking as Hulk Hogan joining the New World Order, Daniel Martin left Ole Miss to become the head coach at Mississippi A&M, and just as Hollywood Hogan and the NWO ran wild on WCW, Martin and his team took off in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

The season opened on a Friday in Columbus. The opponent that day was Alabama, a team that had outscored A&M 92-0 all time. Change was in the air, and on that day in Columbus, the Aggies knocked off Alabama 11-0.

The great play continued eight days later as the Maroon and White traveled down to Meridian and dismantled the Meridian Athletic Club 45-0. Without a doubt, enthusiasm once again ran wild in Starkville as a home tilt with LSU waited in the wings.

The Aggies had not been able to knock off LSU in two previous attempts, but again Martin and his boys pushed the right buttons, and A&M raced to an 11-0 victory.

If the year were 2003, the next matchup for the Aggies, against Ole Miss, would have been nonstop news in Mississippi. After all the man who walked the Ole Miss sideline the year before now wore Maroon and White. With a chance to defeat his old squad, Martin coached a valiant effort, but the game ended in a 6-6 tie.

The Aggies closed out their season with a 0-0 at Tulane. Overall everyone should have been pleased. The Aggies had knocked off Alabama and LSU, and they did not drop a decision the entire season. With a 3-0-2 record, Aggie fans could not wait for 1904.

6 Biggest 'What Ifs' in MSU History; #2: What if State had Played all Home Games in Starkville

2012-05-17T11:00:13Z

On Sunday I numbered all the different cities in our great state where MSU has played. In addition to that, there were many times over Mississippi State's football history when the Bulldogs actually played their "home" games in the opponents stadium! Can you believe that nonsense?

From 1932-1970, MSU played LSU in the state of Mississippi three times - 3!! From 1933-1957, MSU played Alabama outside Tuscaloosa only twice! Played Auburn in Birmingham, Tennessee in Memphis, etc. The stupidity of this decision making is beyond comprehension.

Then there's all the games we played in Jackson. That's better than acting like a Division 1-AA school with someone in your own conference, but it didn't really allow for Scott Field to grow like it should have - especially when all the biggest games were played in Jackson.

If Ole Miss had not played in Jackson for years as well we would probably have an easy answer from a comparable school, but they did the same.

There are two main areas where I think MSU was hurt the most: winning and tradition. Is there anything else that matters more than winning and tradition? How do you develop tradition if you aren't playing in Starkville? How do the students rally together at football games if you aren't playing games on campus? How? How do you expect to win games if you're playing home games on the road? Bottom line - State would be a better historical program if they would have played their home games at home - in Starkville.

What does a historical program get you? Recruits. Even though 18-year-olds have never seen Notre Dame when they were good, they still go there. Nick Saban was able to turn Alabama around in his second year because it's Alabama - he is a great coach and recruiter - but the crimson 'A' on his shirt helped the sales pitch.

It's a shame our past administrators had virtually no foresight. You think Larry Templeton was bad - the guy in charge in the 1930s was horrible. The amazing thing is Mississippi State won big in the 40s despite this. We were a power back then and still played all these games on the road! Good grief, what if.

6 Biggest 'What Ifs' in MSU History; #3: What if State Claimed the 1941 National Title

2012-05-16T21:00:04Z

Mississippi State, and the great people who attend and care about the University, always want to do the right thing. We try to stay objective, we try to stay fair and balanced. Perhaps that's why we don't claim titles that aren't ours. Ole Miss claims a national championship in 1959 and 1962, but where did those come from? Alabama claims 14 national titles, but the NCAA only recognizes 12. One of the discrepancies: 1941.

In 1941, Mississippi State was 8-1-1. One of those eight wins was a 14-0 defeat of Alabama - AT Alabama. Apparently the 16-0 defeat to #10 Dequensne was enough to boot State out of the Top 25, but whatever. It appears as though rankings didn't matter because Alabama somehow jumped from #18 to a split national championship with Minnesota (who the NCAA recognizes) after beating #2 Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. 1941 SEC Champions: Mississippi State. 1941 National Champions: 9-2 Alabama.

Also of note: Mississippi State did not go to a bowl game that year due to extenuating circumstances related to the United States entering World War II. Georgia and Bama represented the SEC instead. I don't know all the politics involved in 1940s bowl selection, but I have to assume that the team that finished 3rd in the SEC (Alabama) would not have gotten a bid over the conference champion.

So what if Mississippi State had claimed the 1941 national championship? I mean, we have every right to, don't we. If Alabama claims it, if Ole Miss can claim two titles that aren't recognized by the NCAA, we could just stick a banner up, right?

Maybe the course of history would be a little different if Mississippi State College (at the time) were 1941 champs. Would Ole Miss have still dominated the Egg Bowl the next 30 years (23-3-4)? Would Darrell Royal have stayed in Starkville instead of leaving and going on to Texas - winning multiple national championships there?

I don't really know how much would be different, but at least there would be four numbers pasted on the side of our stadium: 1-9-4-1. I probably wouldn't even care if it were for the Crimson Tide...they have 12, but they've got to steal ours too.

FWTCT Greatest Games Bracket, RD1: 2004 vs Bama (Basketball) VS. 1963 vs. Loyola (Basketball)

2012-05-16T16:30:15Z

Yesterday our Greatest Games Bracket series kicked off with the introductory post and vote for the "play-in" game. Don't forget to go back and vote in that poll, it closes tonight at midnight!


2004 vs. Alabama (Basketball)	VS.	1963 vs. Loyola (Basketball)

2004 vs. Alabama (Basketball)

2004 was a banner year for Mississippi State, and the final game of the season saw the Bulldogs with a chance to claim a regular season SEC championship for the first time in decades. However, the dogs came out flat, and Alabama took advantage of every opportunity that State gave them, maintaining a 20 point lead at halftime. With 9 minutes remaining in the game, State found themselves still down 16, and the task of coming back to seize a victory seemed all but possible. The video of that final 9 minutes can be found below:

2004 Mississippi State @ Alabama basketball (via sparky39762)

After closing the gap and tying the game to send it end to overtime, the Dogs continued back and forth with the Crimson Tide, until it was 81-80 Alabama. With 10 seconds left, State in-bounded the ball, and Timmy Bowers nailed a driving layup with 1 second remaining to seal the game 82-81 and the SEC regular season championship for Mississippi State in 2004.

This game made the greatest games list becuase it was one of the greatest comebacks in MSU history, and because it was one of the greatest seasons in MSU basketball history. Had it not been for Xavier's hot shooting several weeks later (as Croom touched on yesterday), who knows where that team could have finished up in the records books. Still, an SEC regular season championship is something to be proud of, and Timmy Bowers and Co.'s miraculous comeback in T-Town gave us the crown in 2004.

1963 vs. Loyola (Basketball)

This game needs little introduction or summary for most State fans. Even though it was before many of our times, many of us know about it because it was vital in laying the groundwork for integrated basketball play in the NCAA.

1963 was a great year for Babe McCarthy's Bulldogs, as they compiled a 21-5 record and were named SEC Champions. After completing the regular season, the Bulldogs were invited to postseason play, drawing a first round matchup against the University of Loyola (Illinois). In the previous 3 seasons, an unwritten Mississippi law kept 3 white teams from traveling to play black teams, but coach McCarthy, President Dean Colvard and AD Wade Walker made sure the boys got a chance to play. Here's a clipping from an article on the MSU Kinesiology webpage:

Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett wasn't about to let that happen. Nor was state Sen. Billy Mitts, a former Mississippi State student body president and cheerleader. Mitts even got an injunction prohibiting the team from leaving the state.

But before the papers could be served, Colvard left the state for a speaking engagement in Alabama, while Walker and McCarthy drove north, across the state line to Tennessee.
Early the next morning, trainer Dutch Luchsinger and several reserves drove to a private airport in Starkville, Miss. When they saw the path was safe, a call was made for assistant Jerry Simmons and the starters to hurry and join them.

The plane took off without incident, stopped in Nashville to pick up Walker and McCarthy and headed to Lansing and a warm reception. Back in Mississippi, the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists stewed while many others cheered their team's stance.

"When Babe said we were going, it was like God speaking,'' Shows said. "We didn't understand the politics. But we were all on pins and needles. Just as our plane took off, the sheriff drove through the gate. He'd driven to the wrong airport. It turns out he wanted us to go.''

Loyola guard John Egan, the only white starter on his team, said he didn't understand the implications when Harkness and Mississippi State's Red Stroud shook hands at the center jump in Jenison Field House, as hundreds of flashbulbs popped all around them.

"Jerry is very emotional about this and was crushed when Red just died,'' Egan said. "None of us saw it as 'us' against 'them.' The Mississippi State players were true gentlemen. I guess we showed people the way it could be.''

Although MSU lost that game 61-51, the team really won on that day because they defied the powers that be to take part in something that believed was right. That is why this game made the all-time greatest games list.

Well, we've presented you with the 2 games, now you decide which one moves on! The voting for this game will remain open for one week until May 23 at noon. Make sure you get your vote in and do your part to vote your favorite game onto the next round!

Tomorrow's round 1 matchup: 1996 vs. Cincinnati (Basketball) VS. 2002 vs. Kentucky (Basketball)

Poll

Which game is the greatest?

1902: Not Quite Living up to Expectations

2012-05-16T13:00:56Z

With the Bulldogs claiming two victories in 1901, football frenzy reached a fever pitch in Starkville, but as so many fans of the Maroon and White know all too well, sometimes, the squad does not quite live up to the hype.

In 1902, the Aggies brought on their fourth coach in as many seasons, L. L. Gwinn. His tenure would only last one year as Mississippi A & M regressed in his time in Starkville.

Playing at the Starkville Fairgrounds, the Aggies opened the seasons with two home losses, a 15-6 loss to Cumberland and a 21-0 loss to Ole Miss. If the name Cumberland sounds familiar to you, it is probably because they suffered a 222-0 defeated to Georgia Tech in 1916.

In the third game of the season, the Aggies traveled to Tulane and fought to a 11-11 tie. The next week, Mississippi A&M strolled over to Alabama and dropped a 27-0 decision, marking the third straight time they shut out the Aggies.

The fifth game for the Aggies marked their only win of the season, a 26-0 victory over Howard. The celebrations did not last long as Mississippi A&M fell at home on a Thursday night to LSU 6-0.

As has been the case many times, the Maroon and White faithful left the season with shattered and tattered dreams.