2009 SEC Tournament Preview: Mississippi State vs. Georgia

2009 SEC Tournament Preview. The first round of the SEC tournament kicks off on March 12th. The Mississippi Bulldogs (19-12, 9-7) take on the Georgia Bulldogs (12-19, 3-13) in the first round of the tournament tomorrow in Tampa, Florida. The Bulldogs come into the game after winning their regular season finale over in-state rival Ole Miss, 82-80. Although Georgia comes in with a 3-13 conference record, they finished the regular season with a big loss to the South Carolina Game Cocks. The Bulldogs need to win several games in the 2009 SEC tournament to have a shot at the NCAA tournament, whereas Georgia needs to pull a repeat of the 2008 SEC tournament and win four games in a row to make March Madness.

2009 SEC Tournament Preview - Mississippi State

Mississippi State comes in to the rematch of last year's conference tourney semi-final game led by Jarvis Varnado who is averaging 13 points per game and 9.0 rebounds per game and won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year award for a second straight year. A key to State's performance against Georgia, however, will be the play of All-SEC-Freshman Dee Bost. Bost led State with 135 assists and has been averaging 11.5 points.

2009 SEC Tournament Preview - Georgia

Georgia is led by senior Guard Terrence Woodbury who enters the game averaging 14 points per game. Although Woodbury's average is only 14, he has lit up good competition (30 points vs Kentucky, 32 versus Florida, 22 versus LSU). Georgia will have to win the tournament to have any post-season play with the abysmal record they have built-up over the course of the season. Although unlikely, no one thought the Bulldogs could win the tournament last year with Tennessee and Vanderbilt both being ranked.

2009 SEC Tournament Preview - Prediction

Mississippi State is favored to win this game. My prediction is that Terrence Woodbury decides to have his 'A' game together and if he scores more than 20 points, Georgia wins 68-62.

Refs:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=61
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=344
http://ballhype.com/article/2009_sec_tournament_preview_what_to_watch/
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=290660145
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2579
http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com/3010/
http://www.collegehoopsvideo.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=26860