Mississippi State Team Report (Yahoo! Sports)

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:01:28 PDT

Mississippi State entered this season with high expectations on the return of star players Jamont Gordon and Charles Rhodes, but nearly squandered those after a 5-5 start. The team battled back to finish 12-4 in the Southeastern Conference, but a late slip-up to Georgia in the SEC tournament likely cost the team a spot in NCAA Tournament seeding. State, an eight seed, ended its season with a 77-74 loss to South Regional top-seed Memphis.

When State was playing well during SEC play, it was the dynamic basketball team coach Rick Stansbury thought he had. Gordon played up to his all-over-the-floor potential for most of the season, and Rhodes blossomed into one of the nation's top post players in the final two months of the season.