BULLDOG BITS
Men’s Basketball
ATLANTA, Georgia – An honor given annually to the nation's best defensive player, Shakeel Moore has been selected to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List announced Thursday by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.
The award is in its sixth season. Previous winners include Jevon Carter (West Virginia, 2017-18), Matisse Thybulle (Washington, 2018-19), Marcus Garrett (Kansas, 2019-20), Davion Mitchell (Baylor, 2020-21) and Walker Kessler (Auburn, 2021-22).
Moore is one of three Southeastern Conference players joining Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe and Tennessee's Zakai Zeigler and one of 15 players nationally on the watch list.
The Bulldogs are one of the nation's top defensive units under first-year coach Chris Jans. State ranks inside the nation's top 15 in six categories which include steal percentage (14.8 – third), scoring defense (58.7 – seventh), steals per game (9.7 – eighth), adjusted defensive efficiency (90.7 – 11th), field goal percentage defense (38.9 – 12th) and turnover percentage (23.9 – 13th).
Individually, Moore is third nationally with a 5.95 steal percentage according to Kenpom. He has ranked inside the SEC'S top 5 and NCAA'S top 25 in steals per game all season. The North Carolina native has recorded multiple steals in 11 of 18 outings highlighted by four or more steals on five occasions.
Men’s Tennis
GAINESVILLE, Fla., – Mississippi State men's tennis travels for the first time this season to compete in ITA Kickoff Weekend at the University of Florida.
The Bulldogs start off the event against SMU at 10 a.m. today and will meet either USF or the host Gators the following day. The winner of the two-day event qualifies for a spot at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Chicago next month.
MSU is off to a 4-0 start to the season and coming off a doubleheader sweep of Middle Tennessee State (5-2) and Tennessee State (6-1) last Sunday.
Coach Matt Roberts' Bulldogs feature the nation's No. 42 doubles tandem of Carles Hernandez and Nemanja Malesevic and the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, Petar Jovanovic. Hernandez and Malesevic have won seven of their last nine doubles matches together while Jovanovic – ranked 107th in singles – is riding a seven-match winning streak that dates back to the fall.
Gregor Ramskogler enters the weekend with 54 career dual match doubles victories, which ties him with Kristian Broems (1993-96) and Nuno Borges (201619) for the fourth-most in school history. Ramskogler's 76 overall doubles wins also ranks eighth all-time at State and is one shy of moving up to match René-charles Combette (2000-03).
Mississippi State has participated in ITA Kickoff Weekend every year since 2011 and reached the ITA National Team Indoor Championships four times during that span.
MSU is 1-3 all-time against SMU with the last meeting coming in the opening round of the 2017 NCAA Championships in Norman, Oklahoma. The Bulldogs swept that matchup 4-0.
The Mustangs are off to a 5-1 start to the season having won back-to-back matches against Texas Rio Grand Valley (6-1) and UT Tyler (7-0) in a twin bill on Jan. 21.
USF will take on 16thranked Florida today at 1 p.m.. The Bulls are 3-3 on the year and feature a pair of ranked singles competitors in No. 67 Alvin Tudorica and No. 69 Davide Tortora. Tortora played at Mississippi State from 2020-22.
The Bulldogs have won the past two matches against USF and lead the overall series 5-2. MSU defeated the Bulls 6-1 in Starkville during their last meeting on Feb. 3, 2019.
Florida is 1-1 for the year. The Gators dropped their opener to then No. 8 Texas 5-2 at home but bounced back for a 6-1 victory at UCF on Jan. 21.
Florida's lineup showcases ranked singles Nate Bonetto (51) and Jonah Braswell (93) as well as doubles tandems Tanapatt Nirundorn and Togan Tokac (10), Bonetto and Axel Nefve (37) and Braswell and Lukas Greif (t-43).
The Bulldogs are 19-40 all-time against Florida with their last win coming in the semifinals of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Championship in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.the Gators swept State in Gainesville 7-0 last spring.
Track and Field
Mississippi State track and field heads to the Palmetto State this weekend to face a competitive field beginning today at the Clemson Bob Pollock Invitational.
The two-day meet will be held at the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Complex in Clemson, South Carolina, today and Saturday. The meet will be streamed on ACCNX and the ESPN app.
Thirty-eight studentathletes will represent Mississippi State across 26 total events over the course of two days in South Carolina. This will mark MSU'S third indoor meet of the campaign following back-to-back weekends spent at the Crossplex in Birmingham to open the season.
The Bob Pollock Invitational is set to begin at 8 a.m. today with the heptathlon and pentathlon. Running events will kick off at 12:10 p.m. today with the prelims of the women's 60-meter dash, immediately followed by the men's 60-meter preliminaries.