MSU News & Notes | Rain, Rain Go Away

Here’s your weekend helping of MSU news and some other things that I think you need to know. 

Men’s Basketball

Well, the season is over after losing to Georgia late Thursday night (who went on to beat South Carolina on Friday night). Final score was 79-69.

Bulldogs end the season 14-17. That makes four straight losing seasons after 12 straight seasons without one. But, things are looking bright for next year and into the future despite losing five seniors. I’ll have more on that in a post at 11 am today.

Baseball

The Diamond Dawgs knocked off Oregon in Game 1 of that series, 10-4. Cody Brown came off the bench in the game and hit a grand slam in the 8th inning. Dakota Hudson threw over 70 pitches in the first three innings, but grinded out 5.2 (on 120 pitches) and got the win to improve to 2-1 on the year. State is now 10-3-1.

Today’s game is scheduled for 2:00, but there’s a big chance of rain about that time of day. It’s been raining a lot in north Mississippi this week so who know’s if we’ll get more baseball this weekend.

On Tuesday, however, we do know the Dawgs will wear camo when they face Eastern Kentucky.

Naturally, you’ve got half of State fans who hate it because either they don’t like jersey changes or think it makes us look like rednecks. Then half of State fans love it because it’s different or they love to hunt and think it’s cool. Personally, I’m not a big hunter but I like camo and I think it’s cool….for a weekday non-conference game for sure. I like sticking with the pinstripes or more traditional uniforms for SEC games but when it comes to run of the mill Tuesday games why not try something different?

Softball 

The girls took their turn in L.A. this weekend for the Louisville Slugger Invitational where they’ll play five game. The first was last night vs. UC Santa Barbara which they won 5-2. The second game vs. UCLA was cancelled due to rain (who would’ve figured we’d get the baseball game in Starkville in but they wouldn’t play in Long Beach, CA?). The Bulldogs are now 18-3 on the season.

More from Mississippi State Bulldogs News

• College football schedule week 4: 3 must-watch under-the-radar games
• M&WN Staff – Week 3 SEC Picks and Best Bets
• Mississippi State football film study: Why did MSU’s defense fail vs. LSU?
• SEC football standings after Mississippi State football steamrolled by LSU Tigers
• College Football Schedule Week 3: Under the Radar Games to Watch

Women’s Basketball

Day 6 now of the layoff between SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament selection. We’ll continue to wait until Monday night to find out our destination (which is hopefully staying home in Starkville).

I do not understand why we wait so long to select the women’s tournament. They end their season a week before the men, then get their selections the day after the men? I understand the tournament is a little different because 16 teams host the first two rounds so you have to coordinate, but this is ridiculous. If baseball can get the exact same tournament set-up completed in one day then women’s basketball can do similar. We could be watching tournament games instead of a selection show on Monday, but instead there’s at least a two week gap between conference tournaments and the big dance.

Food

The Nashville Hot Chicken craze has gripped me. I tried KFC’s version a couple of weeks ago and it was delicious….so I had it again. Then I saw it made at Hattie B’s on the Food Network and I figured I could do it. So I did, and it was superb. Here goes:

Fry the chicken – I use shortening in an iron skillet. In my batter I like to use 3/4 flour and 1/4 corn meal plus I add some Panko bread crumbs just for a slightly different texture.

The spice mixture is added afterwards. For this I made chicken strips, and I just used two skinless boneless chicken breasts, so adjust accordingly.

• one tablespoon red pepper
• one tablespoon Tony’s
• 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika

Hattie B’s doesn’t use Tony’s, but if you put the amount of red pepper they do, it will make your eyes water just putting it in the bowl and it’s almost too hot to eat. So I substituted Tony’s.

And then there’s adding the wet to the dry – and Hattie B’s uses the hot oil they fried the chicken in. Honestly, that’s disgusting. I see what happens to hot oil after it sits out for a few hours and that’s why you don’t pour it down the drain. The thought of eating it on purpose is not going to do it for me, so I just melted one half stick of butter and poured it into the spice mixture….no real difference in taste.

Final step is to dip the cooked chicken into the hot chicken “sauce” and then eat. Yum.