May 2003 MSU Basketball Skuttle-Butt

05/31/03
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State University men's basketball coach Rick Stansbury will be inducted into the Campbellsville (Ky.) University Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday evening on the Campbellsville campus.

Stansbury, who was a four-year basketball letterman (1978-81) for the late coach Lou Cunningham's Campbellsville Tigers, will be inducted into CU's Athletic Hall of Fame this weekend along with former Campbellsville head football coach Sam Wickliffe. The induction ceremony will take place at the school's newly renovated J.K. Powell Athletic Center.

Having graduated from Campbellsville in 1982 with a double major in business and physical education, Stansbury helped lead the Tigers to the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) Tournament championship in 1979 and a regular-season league title the following year. As a senior, the Battletown, Ky., native paced Campbellsville to the school's first District 32 crown and an appearance in the 1981 NAIA Tournament.

Previously in 1999, Stansbury was honored by the Campbellsville Alumni Association as a recipient of the school's Distinguished Alumni Award.

As the head basketball coach at Mississippi State for the past five seasons (1999-2003), Stansbury has compiled a 100-60 (.625) career record to rank fourth all-time on the school's career wins list. This past season, as a Top-25 national finalist for the 2002-03 Naismith Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year Award, he guided the 21-10 Bulldogs to the SEC Western Division championship as well as a repeat showing in the SEC Tournament's title game and a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Source: MSU Media Relations

05/16/03
Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State all-SEC guard Timmy Bowers has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2003 USA Basketball Men's National Team Trials, as announced Thursday by USA Basketball from its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Trials will be held May 30-June 1 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The player selections were made by the USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee, which is chaired by Terry Holland, former University of Virginia athletics director.

A 6-2, 180-pound rising senior and reigning team captain for coach Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs, Bowers ranked 13th in the SEC in scoring (14.6 ppg) this past season as a junior, in addition to standing second in the league in 3-pointers made per game (2.26 treys per game), sixth in three-point field-goal percentage (41.2%) and seventh in steals (1.77 spg). The Gulfport native and former Mississippi prep player of the year at Harrison Central High School was named to The Associated Press All-SEC Third Team this past year, along with being selected to the 2003 SEC All-Tournament Team, en route to helping lead MSU to a 21-10 overall record, an SEC Western Division crown, as well as second-straight appearances in the SEC Tournament championship game and NCAA Tournament.

The USA Collegiate Committee will select finalists from the Trials for two USA Basketball teams - 2003 USA Basketball Junior World Championship Team and 2003 USA Pan American Games Team. Of the 52 invited players, 28 including MSU's Bowers, because they are older than 19-years-old, will be eligible only for consideration for the Pan Am Games Team.

The first Trials session will be held on Friday, May 30, with two sessions scheduled for Saturday, May 31, and one final practice session to be conducted on Sunday, June 1.

In addition to being used to select finalists for the 2003 USA Basketball Men's Junior World Championship Team, the Trials will also be relied on to determine finalists for the 2003 USA Men's Pan American Games Team. The Pan American Games, held every four years in the year prior to the Olympics, will be held Aug. 1-17, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The men's basketball competition is slated for Aug. 2-6. The United States will be directed by Michigan State University mentor Tom Izzo, and his assistants include college head coaches Lorenzo Romar of the University of Washington and Quin Snyder of the University of Missouri.

Other SEC players who have accepted invitations to participate in the 2003 USA Basketball Men's National Team Trials include Alabama's Kennedy Winston, Jonathan Modica of Arkansas, Kentucky's tandem of Gerald Fitch and Kelenna Azubuike, and C.J. Watson of Tennessee.

Source: MSU Media Relations

05/08/03 - Mississippi's Mr. Basketball, Charlie White, currently a junior point guard at Provine High School, has committed to Mississippi State, according to The Clarion-Ledger.

Click here to read the article in The Clarion-Ledger.