South Bracket: #9 Oregon vs #8 Mississippi State

CBS will televise the game live. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. (PDT).

Photo courtesy: goducks.com

EUGENE, Ore. - The ninth-seeded Oregon Ducks of the Pac-10 will take on eighth-seeded Mississippi State of the SEC in an NCAA Tournament first round game on Friday, at Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark.

CBS will televise the game live. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. (PDT).

The MSU-Oregon winner will play the winner of the No. 1-seeded Memphis and No. 16 Texas-Arlington contest on Sunday, March 23, for the right to advance to the Houston, Texas, regional the following weekend.

Oregon is now 12-8 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 6-4 under current head coach Ernie Kent. Oregon is making the 10th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history and the fifth under Kent. The Ducks last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2007, advancing as a No. 3 seed to the Midwest Regional final before falling to eventual national champion Florida. Oregon beat Miami (Ohio), Winthrop and Nevada-Las Vegas to reach the Elite Eight.

In 2002 as a No. 2 seed, the Pac-10 regular season champion Ducks advanced to the Elite Eight, defeating Montana, Wake Forest and Texas before falling to top-seeded Kansas. The Ducks also have NCAA appearances in 2003, 2000, 1995, 1961 and 1960.

It is the third time Oregon has made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances (1960-61, 2002-03, 2007-08).

Oregon won the very first NCAA Championship in 1939 (defeating Ohio State, 46-33), and the leading scorer in that game (16 points) Ret. Navy RADM John Dick, is a UO season ticket holder who attends nearly every home game.

ELITE TEAMS:

Oregon is one of just 15 schools -- and the only from the Northwest -- to have advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight twice this decade (Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Memphis, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, UCLA).

MISSISSIPPI MUSINGS:

Oregon redshirt freshman guard LeKendric Longmire is from Pascagoula. Miss., while assistant coach Kenny Payne is from Laurel, Miss.

ABOUT MISSISSIPPI STATE:

Winners of eight of their last 11 contests, coach Rick Stansbury’s 22-10 Bulldogs claimed their fourth SEC Western Division title in the last six seasons with this year’s 12-4 regular-season league mark. MSU won the SEC West by three games over runner-up Arkansas. Most recently in Atlanta during last weekend’s SEC Tournament, State posted a 69-67 overtime triumph over divisional rival Alabama on Friday evening before dropping a 64-60 decision to eventual tourney champion Georgia during Saturday’s semifinal-round action held at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

Entering postseason tournament play still ranked second in the nation in both field-goal percentage defense (.368) and blocked shots (7.94 bpg), the Bulldogs are paced by the first-team, all-SEC veteran tandem of junior guard/forward Jamont Gordon (17.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg & 4.8 apg) and senior forward Charles Rhodes (16.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg & 56% FGs). Defensively, SEC Defensive Player of the Year Jarvis Varnado (7.7 ppg & 7.9 rpg) continues to top the NCAA in blocks with 4.63 swats per contest.

MSU head coach Rick Stansbury on Oregon’s three-point shooting ability:

“That is the strength of their team. They have four starters back from an Elite Eight squad last year. They

came in with high expectations this season and did not quite reach some of those expectations, but they

are a very capable basketball team. The have a lot of talent and a lot of capability to shoot the deep ball.

That is what they are good at, spreading out the floor offensively. They are capable of putting five guys

out there that can shoot the three well.”

Sources: University of Oregon Athletics and Mississippi State University Athletics

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