Much like the picture above, MSUs last couple of wins have not been pretty but they continue to find a way to win. Nancy Lopez, one of the best female golfers ever once said, “A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It’s all a matter of pride.” Every game it seems that we have bad breaks, but this team is not giving up. They are playing w/ effort, including Sidney most of the time. I think that’s all most of us want to see from our athletic teams: relentless effort, as Dan Mullen puts it. I still question Coach Stans, especially in how we close games. IMO, we should continue to run our normal offense in the closing minutes regardless of the score. Instead, we try to run the clock out and have horrible offensive possessions that allow our opponent to regain their thoughts and rest in order to get an easy stop and counter with a big basket at the other end. We totally dominated LSU last night, but let them back in the game in the last 2 minutes. But when the pressure is on, we made our free throws, got the stop we needed, and won the game. This team is still capable of losing games it should win, but I do think they’ve learned some things in the last week. The 2nd half against Vandy was probably their best half of basketball the entire season. Florida will be a huge test Saturday.
Signing Day for Football Recruiting is next week, Wednesday, Feb. 1. Right now MSU has a good class even if no one else commits. But, I think adding a couple more that are in our reach will make this a great class. Here’s some names that haven’t made a commitment to keep an eye on that we could see sign the dotted line for the Maroon and White next week: Beniquez Brown, LB, Florence, AL; Richie Brown, LB, Long Beach, MS; Jeremy Liggins, QB, Lafayette County, MS; Dimitric Camiel, OL, Houston, TX; Nick Schuessler, QB, Grayson, GA. Obviously we won’t take all of the names I just listed, but we have a place for 3 of them according to the current numbers. Below is the current status of our commits:
SIGNED LETTER OF INTENT (3)
Denico Autry, WDE, 6-5/255, Scooba, MS, East Mississippi C.C., Signed(12/21/2011)
Dylan Holley, C, 6-3/300, Perkinston, MS, Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C.. Signed (12/21/2011)
Charles Siddoway, OT, 6-7/295, Oroville, CA, Butte College, Signed (12/21/2011)
HARD COMMITS (22)
Nick James, DT, 6-5/320, Long Beach, MS,Commit (8/2/2011)
Quay Evans, DT, 6-3/305, Morton, MS, Commit (12/1/2011)
A.J. Jefferson, SDE, 6-2/240, Summit, MS, Commit (1/21/2012)
Will Redmond, ATH, 6-0/180, Memphis, TN, Commit (8/1/2011)
Xavier Grindle, RB, 5-11/195, Columbia, MS, Commit (7/22/2011)
Quadry Antoine, S, 5-11/205, Belle Chasse, LA, Commit (6/5/2011)
Adarrius Perkins, WR, 6-2/220, Brooklyn, MS, Commit (10/20/2011)
Nelson Adams, SDE, 6-4/290, Brandon, MS, Commit (6/7/2011)
Cedric Jiles, CB, 5-10/170, Clinton, MS, Commit (6/2/2011)
Deonte Evans, WR, 5-11/190, Mccomb, MS, Commit (5/11/2011)
Devon Desper, C, 6-4/300, Madison, MS, Commit (3/29/2011)
Frederick Brown, WR, 6-2/185, Jackson, MS, Commit (7/27/2011)
Brandon Holloway, ATH, 5-10/160, Tampa, FL, Commit (7/26/2011)
Adairius Barnes, ATH, 6-0/180, Port Gibson, MS, Commit (7/23/2011)
Torrey Bell, WDE, 6-4/222, New Orleans, LA, Commit (6/15/2011)
Kivon Coman, ATH, 6-1/185, Florence, AL, Commit (8/29/2011)
Ryan Brown, SDE, 6-4/240, Marrero, LA, Commit (6/15/2011)
Jordan Washington, DT, 6-2/265, Suwanee, GA, Commit (10/20/2011)
Cole Carter, OT, 6-5/290, Caledonia, MS, Commit (7/1/2011)
Gus Walley, TE, 6-4/220, Leakesville, MS, Commit (7/23/2011)
Devon Bell, P, 6-2/180, Vicksburg, MS, Commit (7/11/2011)
Justin Senior, OT, 6-6/305, Chatham, VA, Commit (12/12/2011)
