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[font=Arial,Helvetica][size=+1]Bulldogs chomp at chance for revenge[/font][/size][/font]
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[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][size=-2]By Ian R. Rapoport
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irapopor@clarionledger.com
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[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][size=-2]Rick Guy/The Clarion-Ledger[/size][/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][size=-2]
Mississippi State's players watch their game slip away during the Bulldogs' meeting with Xavier in the second round of the last season's NCAA Tournament at Orlando. MSU will get a shot a revenge tonight when it meets the Musketeers on their home floor in Cincinnati.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>CINCINNATI — It has been nearly nine months, and that pain has not gone away.
That pit in the bottom of your stomach, where you feel like somebody wound up and punched you there. That sharp ache that resurrects itself each time the thoughts of that Orlando game surface.
Carrying a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, with a 26-3 record, an unbeaten season on the road and the SEC player of the year, Mississippi State waltzed into last season's second-round game against No. 7 Xavier with sights set as far as the eye could see. It left, stunningly, with an 89-74 loss.[/size][/font]
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"They ruined our dreams last year, to put it bluntly," said Mississippi State senior Shane Power, who had a team-high 16 points in that game. "They ruined everything we worked for eight months of the year."
The Bulldogs will never get to replay the game, despite their wishes to the contrary. What they will get is an opportunity for a little revenge on Xavier's home floor.[/font]
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[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][size=-2]Rick Guy/The Associated Press[/size][/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][size=-2]
Mississippi State's Lawrence Roberts, No. 4, will be looking for a different result when the Dogs face Xavier tonight before a national TV audience.
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The chance will come tonight at 7 p.m., when Mississippi State (8-2) visits Xavier (2-3) at Cincinnati's Cintas Center in a game that will be broadcast on ESPN2. Of all the games on MSU's schedule, this is one where coach Rick Stansbury might not need even need to give his team a pregame speech.
"It won't be a game we need to remind our guys about," Stansbury said.
How could they forget?[/font]
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The 2003-04 SEC regular season champions entered the NCAA Tournament with a No. 8 national ranking, but fresh off an overtime loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. It quickly dispatched Monmouth in the opening round.
Xavier, meanwhile, was red-hot. It had just won an Atlantic-10 Tournament title, whipping national No. 1 St. Joseph's on the way.[/font]
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The Musketeers had defeated Louisville in the opening round, before facing Mississippi State for the second time in the season. The Bulldogs won 82-70 in the regular season meeting, though the NCAA Tournament circumstances were a little different.
"They ran into a buzzsaw in terms of how hot we were," said current Xavier coach Sean Miller, who was an assistant for former coach Thad Motta (now at Ohio State) last season. "At that point, Mississippi State couldn't have faced a worse team."
XU led 34-33 at halftime after sinking a 50-foot buzzer-beating shot. It was at that point when then-senior MSU guard Timmy Bowers started to worry.[/font]
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"When he hit that shot," said Bowers at the time, "I thought to myself, 'It's going to be a pretty long night for us."
It was. Xavier shot a blistering 54.5 percent from the field, including 68.4 percent from 3-point land. For Xavier to upset the Bulldogs, it needed to do exactly what it did.[/font]
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"It took all of those shots to beat them," recalled Miller, whose team lost to Duke in the Elite Eight. "It was amazing watching all of those go in."
From that point on, MSU players have stared at Dec. 18 on their calendars, begging for the rematch to come.
"Oh man, there's nothing I've thought about more," said point guard Gary Ervin, who had nine points and five assists in the game. "I've been waiting for this a long time. I still get that feeling I got when we were upset. I know it's supposed to be one game at a time. ... but I've been focused on this one."[/font]
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Keep in mind, the teams are different now. For MSU, gone are Bowers and Branden Vincent, two of its leaders, though All-American power forward Lawrence Roberts is back.
For Xavier, gone are two NBA draftees in 6-0 guard Lionel Chalmers (31 points in that game) and 6-5 guard Romain Sato (12 in the game). Chalmers was picked by the Clippers 33rd overall and Sato was selected by the Spurs 52nd overall. And Miller is at the helm in Motta's stead.[/font]
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The teams have developed a familiarity, playing three times in past two seasons. There is a mutual respect there.
"We've improved just by playing them," Miller said.
But for MSU, improvement will not be first and foremost on the docket. Just revenge.[/font]
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"I know it's not going to feel the same when we win," Ervin said. "But everyone knows this game is important."[/font]
