BULLDOG BITS
How competitive is the Southeastern Conference in baseball?
In the SEC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll, the Mississippi State baseball program was picked to finished sixth in the seventeam race and two Bulldogs earned preseason ALL-SEC honors as announced by the conference on Thursday.
The preseason poll featured all 14 baseball coaches voting on the preseason all-conference squad, along with ranking their projected order of finish in each division. No head coach was allowed to vote for his own team or student-athlete in the preseason poll.
The coaches also chose the overall SEC champion, with Vanderbilt garnering nine votes. LSU (5 votes), Florida (2 votes) and Arkansas (1 vote) also appeared on the champions line. The divisional coaches polls are listed below, with first place votes in parenthesis.
Basketball
Mississippi State is one of 11 schools across the country that will wear adidas uniforms inspired by the Harlem Renaissance in honor of Black History Month this February.
The Bulldog men will wear the “Ballroom Uniforms” on February 23 against South Carolina while State’s women will wear them on February 24 to host Vanderbilt.
The Harlem Renaissance was a creative movement in the early 20th Century spanning the 1910s to the mid1930s. In this era, the Renaissance ballroom became a place that epitomized basketball culture as local teams played on the same wooden floors that were used for ballroom dance events and jazz shows.
“At adidas, we created the Celebrating Black Culture program as a way of honoring our past throughout Black History Month, but also across the entire calendar year,” said senior director for adidas Basketball in North America Adam Laitsas,. “We firmly believe that through sport, we have the power to change lives, and we’re humbled to be able to celebrate these historical sport moments through the new Harlem Renaissance collection.”
MSU’S jerseys are inspired by the wooden floors of the ballrooms and feature a pattern that mimics the fabrics and prints of the 1920s. The jerseys feature a unique bean stitch texture around the team name, and the shorts display the word “BALLROOM” on the inner waistband. All players will wear a “Celebrating Black Culture” patch on their chest.
Football
A Mississippi State record eight Bulldogs have been invited to the National Football League Combine in Indianapolis, scheduled for Feb. 26 through March 4.
The NFL officially released the full list of 338 invitees on Thursday. For MSU, the selections were safety Johnathan Abram, offensive guard Deion Calhoun, quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, defensive end Gerri Green, center Elgton Jenkins, safety Mark Mclaurin, cornerback Jamal Peters and defensive end Montez Sweat.
State’s eight selections tied for seventh-most nationally and broke the team record of six set following the 2015 season when linebacker Beniquez Brown, cornerback Taveze Calhoun, defensive tackle Chris Jones, quarterback Dak Prescott, cornerback Will Redmond and wide receiver De’runnya Wilson were chosen for the 2016 NFL Combine.
It’s the 10th consecutive year that the Bulldogs have sent multiple players to the NFL Combine. Dating back to 1999, a total of 61 Bulldogs have been invited to the NFL Combine.
The 2019 NFL Draft is set for April 26-28, and will be held in Nashville, Tennessee.
Men’s Tennis
Riding a four-match win streak to open the 2019 season, the No. 3 Mississippi State men’s tennis team is set for its first road tests of the year, traveling to Lubbock, Texas, to take on Texas Tech and Tulane.
The Bulldogs (4-0) first face the Red Raiders (5-2) at 4 p.m. today before playing the 19th-ranked Green Wave (4-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday at TTU’S Mcleod Tennis Center. Live scoring will be available to fans for today’s match against Texas Tech, with the password being “ttu”. Fans can follow the team’s Twitter account for live updates on both days.
“We’re really excited about our first road tests of the year this weekend,” MSU head coach Matt Roberts said. “Texas Tech and Tulane are both outstanding, well-coached teams that are consistently in the NCAA Tournament year-in and year-out. This weekend is a great opportunity to test ourselves against some very good players and teams on the road before we head to Chicago for National Indoors.”
Super Bulldog Weekend
The 34th annual Super Bulldog Weekend, a Mississippi State spring homecoming tradition, will be held April 12-14 on the MSU campus.
Fans will get a glimpse of Joe Moorhead’s 2019 football team as the squad closes spring practice with the Maroon and White Game on Saturday, April 13 in Davis Wade Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. and admission is free. MSU’S clear bag and metal detector policies will be in place at Davis Wade Stadium.
Coach Chris Lemonis’ nationally-ranked Diamond Dawgs welcome Alabama to the new Dudy Noble Field for a three-game Southeastern Conference series with game times at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
There will be two chances to view Daryl Greenan’s women’s tennis team in SEC action during Super Bulldog Weekend. The squad hosts Texas A&M at 3 p.m. Friday and LSU at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Saturday’s slate begins with the MSU soccer team, fresh off its first NCAA Tournament appearance, taking on Auburn in an 11 a.m. spring exhibition at the MSU Soccer Field. The Bulldogs are under the direction of first-year head coach James Armstrong, who served as the associate head coach at Auburn the past six seasons.
Additional details on Super Bulldog Weekend will be announced at a later date.
Track and Field
With the calendar turning to February, competition continues to thicken for Mississippi State track and field, which is set to compete in a split meet Feb. 8-9 at Clemson and Vanderbilt.
Several Bulldogs will head to Clemson, South Carolina, for the Tiger Paw Invitational – a meet that features multiple top25 teams. Another MSU contingent will return to Nashville for the Music City Challenge hosted by Vanderbilt.
“When we set up our schedule, we wanted our competition to get tougher with each meet leading up to the SEC Championships,” State interim head coach Chris Woods said. “We were able to test ourselves against some national title contenders two weeks ago at Arkansas, and that opportunity presents itself again this weekend in Clemson and Nashville. We’re very excited about another chance to see how we’ve grown from meet to meet and to see how we stack up against these top programs.”
On the men’s side, the Bulldogs will take on six ranked opponents at the