1.0 - Jalen Steele will not be playing basketball at MSU anymore. There was some confusion about the situation when Jalen sent this tweet out:
Hilarious I'm not done playing just wanted to take a year off to get stronger and be strong for my senior year.
— Jalen Steele (@Jalensteele0) September 17, 2013
Rick Ray clarified, however, saying Steele was cleared to play by doctors but he wanted to redshirt. Coach Ray told him there wouldn't be any scholarship room in 2014-15 so he needed to play this year, and since that was the case Jalen decided to sit this year out, and he will likely transfer to play his senior year of eligibility. He will remain on scholarship for this academic year.
Steele averaged 10.1 PPG last year, and was a career 36% 3-point shooter at MSU.
2.0 - Ross Mitchell is organizing a once a month worship event at the Palmiero Center starting Thursday, September 26th at 8:00. It is really encouraging to me to see a young guy like Ross, a star on the baseball team, take a leadership role on campus like this. Well done. Trevor Fitts is excited too...
Check out this worship event put together by @Rossterphobic pic.twitter.com/8sahWAXd7G
— Trevor Fitts (@tfitts31) September 19, 2013
3.0 - Vick Ballard tore his ACL and is out for the season. That's bad news that I'm sure you've already heard about, but even more troubling for him was the fact the Colts were able to trade for Trent Richardson from the Browns. This likely means Vick will have to play elsewhere in 2014 if he wants to be a starting tailback.
Nick Griffin sends his remorse...
"@2Gs_: Hate that for my guy Vick Ballard tho 😔"cut throat league
— Nick Griffin (@MacGrifferous) September 19, 2013
4.0 - Geoff Collins says his favorite player is Deontae Skinner. It's pretty unusual a coach would pick a current player as his "favorite" but that's what he did. To be fair, I've heard Collins also say Benardrick McKinney was everything Mississippi State is about too. And he loves Matt Wells. All of them really. But what LB coach wouldn't love these guys? I've been on the Skinner train since the summer - I think he's got a decent shot a having a pretty good pro career.
The article I linked was basically re-purposed from the Columbus Dispatch. I would never link a Matt Stevens article, you know. Deontae doesn't feel the same I guess...
Great article http://t.co/2rD5Iincc9
— Deontae Skinner (@DSkinner__11) September 19, 2013
5.0 - Let's see, what else is there....Dan Mullen's weekly press conference? Pretty slow week on the news front. Letting things cool down I suppose. Probably not a bad idea.
Hail State.
Bonus: I like this song. Can't stop playing it for the last two weeks.