MSU baseball welcomes San Diego for three-game series

STARKVILLE – For the first time this season, Mississippi State’s baseball team enters a weekend trying to bounce back.

MSU will take on Ole Miss in men’s tennis

STARKVILLE — Mate Cutura considers Zvonimir Babac a friend.

Now men’s tennis players in the Southeastern Conference, Cutura and Babac grew up competing against each other on the international stage, as Cutura is from Bosnia & Herzegovina, while Babac hails from Croatia.

These days, they don’t speak to each other.

Former Bulldogs showcase skills to NFL scouts

STARKVILLE — Two weeks after a strong performance at the NFL Scouting Combine, defensive end Preston Smith had little to prove Wednesday at Mississippi State’s Pro Day.

Smith didn’t let that stop him.

MSU men need two wins, help to get SEC bye

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray insists he isn’t looking forward.

At this point, there’s not much else to do.

MSU (12-17, 5-11 Southeastern Conference) is mathematically alive for a first-round bye in the SEC tournament next week in Nashville, Tennessee. To accomplish that goal, the Bulldogs will have to turn in a flawless final week of the season. That run will start at 8 tonight when MSU takes on Vanderbilt (SEC Network) at Memorial Gym in Nashville.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff hands MSU its first loss

STARKVILLE — Each coach needed only a few words to sum up what happened Tuesday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff baseball coach Carlos James insisted his team came to Starkville expecting to win.

Mississippi State coach John Cohen bemoaned the fact that the Bulldogs “just didn’t compete. Didn’t fight for it.”

With that, the Golden Lions left town with a 3-2 win and saddled the No. 9 Bulldogs with their first loss.

Nineteen Bulldogs will work out at Pro Day

STARKVILLE — Johnthan Banks isn’t shy about sharing his opinion about the NFL Scouting Combine.

The 2012 winner of the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the nation’s best defensive back, Banks, by his own admission, turned in a disappointing performance at the Combine two months after his final season with the Mississippi State football team.

West Point girls see historic season end in playoffs

WEST POINT – Already playing with house money, West Point High girls’ basketball coach Dashmond Daniel decided to gamble late in his team’s Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A Playoff opener against Ridgeland Friday night.

MSU baseball team moves to 12-0 with strong pitching

STARKVILLE – Austin Sexton believes that he and teammate Preston Brown are very similar in their approach to pitching.

Mullen receives pay bump, extension

What does being No. 1 mean for a football coach at Mississippi State?

For Dan Mullen, it means more than $4 million dollars per year.

MSU announces extension, raise for Mullen

STARKVILLE – What does being No. 1 mean for a football coach at Mississippi State?

MSU baseball teams faces huge challenge in Arizona, Samford

STARKVILLE – It has been nine up, nine down for Mississippi State’s baseball team, as the Bulldogs have been perfect through the season’s first two weeks.

Basketball Bulldogs look for strong finish to regular season

STARKVILLE – The end is in sight, and that may bring light at the end of the tunnel for Mississippi State’s basketball team.

No. 1 Kentucky too much for MSU

STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State men’s basketball team ran into one major problem Wednesday night when it played host to No. 1 Kentucky.

The Wildcats were just too good.

McCord makes most of his second chance in win against Alcorn St.

STARKVILLE — Jesse McCord just wanted another chance.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound freshman right-hander from Spanish Fort, Alabama, made the most of it Tuesday afternoon.

McCord rebounded from a disappointing debut in the Mississippi State baseball team’s third game of the season to throw 5 2/3 innings in a 10-2 win against Alcorn State at Dudy Noble Field.

Defense has been strong suit for MSU men

STARKVILLE — While his team’s offensive problems have been front and center in a stretch of four losses in five games, Mississippi State men’s basketball coach Rick Ray still believes his team has arrived defensively.

MSU men gearing up for No. 1 Kentucky

Even if others were mistaken, John Calipari had no problem remembering who is next on the No. 1 Kentucky men’s basketball team’s schedule.

As Calipari joined the Southeastern Conference’s weekly basketball teleconference Monday morning, the conference call moderator introduced the Kentucky coach and said he and his team were preparing to face Texas A&M on Wednesday night.

“I thought we were playing Mississippi State,” Calipari said. “These goofballs have me watching Mississippi State tape. Should I go watch Texas A&M tape?”

Cox impresses at NFL Combine

Initially, the fact that was Mississippi State safety Justin Cox received an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine was a surprise.

His performance in Indianapolis, Indiana, was anything but.

McKinney, Smith impress at NFL Combine

Mississippi State linebacker Benardrick McKinney arrived at the NFL Combine as one of the nation’s top inside linebacker prospects.

He did nothing to change that fact Sunday.

But MSU defensive end Preston Smith might have changed his situation for the better.

Robson continues hot start at plate for Bulldogs

STARKVILLE — There is nothing about Mississippi State center fielder Jacob Robson that screams middle-of-the-order hitter.

Maybe that’s why it’s working so well.

Robson, a 5-foot-7, 160-pound speedster out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, isn’t a threat to hit a home runs. And with his slender build and contact-hitting approach, he doesn’t seem like a typical run producer. But there he is, the sweet-hitting left-hander anchored at the No. 5 spot in MSU’s batting order.

MSU can’t pull upset of No. 18 Arkansas

STARKVILLE — The opponent changes, but the results continue to stay the same for the Mississippi State men’s basketball team.

Two days after leading archrival Ole Miss for most of the game before falling in the end, MSU repeated that scenario Saturday against No. 18 Arkansas. Despite leading at halftime and for much of the second half, MSU endured a six-minute scoreless stretch in crunch time and never recovered in a 65-61 loss at Humphrey Coliseum.