The Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (35-1) advanced to their second straight Final Four with this win over UCLA Sunday night.
MSU will now head to Columbus, Ohio, for the Final Four. They will play Louisville Friday night.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi State men’s team will head to New York for the NIT Final Four. Their first opponent is Penn State. The winner will play the winner between Utah and Western Kentucky. Former MSU head coach Rick Stansbury coaches Western Kentucky.
UPSETS RULE
IN NCAA
This year’s NCAA men’s tournament had some great upsets as Buffalo, Marshall, Syracuse and Maryland-Baltimore created havoc for the bracket experts. In the end, Kansas and Villanova, both No. 1 seeds, made the Final Four while No.3 Michigan joined the party after some close wins.
The Cinderella team this year is Loyola of Chicago. I have to say following Loyola was fun this year. They were a No. 11 seed and won their first three games in the tournament over Miami, Tennessee and Nevada by a combined four points. They whipped a Kansas State team that was coming off an emotional win over Kentucky by 14 points.
They are now the hottest team in the nation plus they have the longest active winning streak at 14 to go along with their 32 wins on the season. They also have their good luck charm in Sister Jean. I remember as a young lad back in1963 watching Loyola upset Cincinnati in overtime to win the NCAA tournament. I watched on a black and white small screen TV that night. The Cincinnati Bearcats were the dominant team of that time. So good luck to the Ramblers again!
NEWMAN
KEYS KANSAS
Jackson’s Malik Newman led Kansas to an overtime win over Duke. Newman scored all of his team's points in overtime (13) and ended the game with 32 points. This might have been the best game of the tourney. The game had 18 lead changes and was tied 11 times.
The University of Louisville is in the process of hiring a new head basketball coach. Former Northeast Jones Parade All-American Kenny Payne is on the short list for the job.
ODDS AND
ENDS
Ole Miss baseball won two of three games against Texas A&M in College Station this past weekend. They are now tied with Arkansas as the leader in the SEC Western Division. The Rebels are 4-2 in SEC play and 22-3 overall. They will play host to Arkansas this weekend.
Mississippi State fell to 1-5 as they lost two of three against Missouri. The Bulldogs did win a 3-1 Saturday game in 15 innings against the Tigers. The Bulldogs travel to LSU beginning on Thursday of this week before hosting Ole Miss the following weekend.
USM won two of three at Florida Atlantic this weekend as they won their sixth straight C-USA series. Matt Wallner hit a grand slam and also a two-run blast to lead the Golden Eagles. USM hosts Rice this weekend and Western Kentucky the following weekend.
Mississippi State began its spring football practice this past week. The Bulldogs will hold their spring football game on April 21. Ole Miss is in its final stages of spring ball and will host their Grove Bowl on April 7. USM has another quarterback battle this spring and will host its spring game on April 21.
Dale McKee, a resident of Waynesboro, has covered Mississippi sports for more than 40 years. He writes a weekly sports column. You can contact Dale at
ddmckee18@yahoo.com
