Mississippi State Bulldogs
Starting Five: Jarvis Varnado, Lawrence Roberts, Jamont Gordon, Mario Austin, Derrick Zimmerman
Bench: Arnett Moultrie, Timmy Bowers, Shane Power, Charles Rhodes, Dee Bost, Craig Sword, Quinndary Weatherspoon
MVP: I’m going with an outside-the-box choice here. Roberts was the better player, but Varnado is one of the elite defensive players of the 2000’s college basketball landscape.
This is a strong, if not entirely deep, team. They could contend with LSU for the best of the rest title.
Missouri Tigers
Starting Five: Phil Pressey, Marcus Denmon, Kareem Rush, Arthur Johnson, Rickey Paulding
Bench: Kim English, DeMarre Carroll, Jabari Brown, Clarence Gilbert, Linas Kleiza, Jordan Clarkson
MVP: Rush was one of the smoothest scorers in the country. My love of point guards almost caused me to pick Pressey.
Missouri would be a really fun team that gets up and down the court a lot of presses on defense and runs teams out of the gym.
Ole Miss Rebels
Starting Five: Rahim Lockhart, Justin Reed, Chris Warren, Stefan Moody, Marshall Henderson
Bench: Jason Harrison, Clarence Sanders, Dwayne Curtis, David Huertas, Terrico White, Murphy Holloway, Sebastian Saiz
MVP: Reed, easily. He was a four-time All-Conference member. Moody’s two First-Team spots were nothing to scoff at, though.
I had to include Henderson on the first time. Ole Miss basketball has never been more relevant than when he was on the court.