Bigger fish to fry for MSU than winning SEC Tournament

Aformer coach in the National Football League once said, “you play to win the game, hello?”

If there is an athletic competition taking place, then the primary objective for the teams or individuals participating in the event is to have success and come out with a victory.

It will be nice if the Mississippi

State Bulldogs can go over to Hoover, Alabama, this week and win the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Any time there is an SEC championship on the line, MSU will do everything it can to pick up the extra hardware for the trophy case.

Even with that being the case, the Bulldogs are going to go about this week in a smart way. There are bigger fish to fry later in the postseason than winning the SEC Tournament.

It's just a fact that MSU'S top two pitchers, SEC Pitcher of the Year Ethan Small and SEC Freshman of the Year JT Ginn, probably won't see action in the first two games of the conference tournament.

After Small pitched last Thursday against South Carolina, it will be too quick to bring him back to the mound tonight when the Bulldogs take on either LSU or South Carolina in the final game of the second day at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. There is a chance he could work a little bit on Thursday, but even that may be a stretch.

The reason for that is MSU will likely be faced with a Friday, Saturday and Sunday NCAA regional next week, so managing the pitching rotation where Small and Ginn would stay in a Friday and Saturday slot will be the ideal way to set up the situation.

If you read Joel Coleman's preview about the Bulldogs above on this page, head coach