Watch out for Mississippi State basketball

August 19, 5:42 PMCollege Sports ExaminerJacob Osterhout

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the College Sports Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Renardo Sydney has been cleared for landing.

Mississippi State reached the Final Four in 1996 for the first time in school history. Since then, the Bulldogs have made the NCAA Tournament six times but have never reached the semifinals again.

This could be the year, however, that MSU not only survives the first few rounds of the NCAA Tournament, but wins the whole darn thing.

On Monday, the last day to sign up for classes, highly-recruited forward Renardo Sidney enrolled at Mississippi State after being academically certified by the NCAA's Eligibility Center.

Now, this does not mean that Sidney will be in a MSU uniform this winter. The Mississippi native's amateur status is still being investigated by the NCAA, which does not seem to believe that his family could afford their expensive residence near his high school in Los Angeles.

But if Sidney's parents can convince the NCAA's investigation unit that a black family in Los Angeles is capable of paying rent on an expensive home without taking advantage of their son's athletic prowess, then the Bulldogs could end up landing a recruit that will make them a national title contender.

At six-feet-eleven, 255 lbs., Sidney has the physicality to make an immediate impact in Starkville. On top of that, he'll join a frontcourt that already features the nation's leading shot blocker, Jarvis Varnado, who returned to college after testing the NBA Draft. Few teams in the country would be able to match up against a formidable tandem like Varnado and Sidney.