STARKVILLE – Just as league and national media members did two weeks ago, Southeastern Conference coaches picked the Mississippi State women’s basketball team to repeat on Tuesday.

The coaches picked Mississippi State, which has been to the last two national championship games, to win the conference title for the second year in a row.

South Carolina was picked to finish second, followed by Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri. Ole Miss was picked to finish last in the 14-team league, although senior forward Shandricka Sessom was a second team All-SEC selection.

Vic Schaefer’s Bulldogs were picked to repeat after winning the first league title in program history. Mississippi State won a nation’s-best 37 games, the second-most in SEC history, and did so behind the second-longest win streak in conference annals (32 games). State had the first undefeated regular season by a league squad in 20 years.

Mississippi State hosts NCAA Division II national champion Central Missouri in an exhibition game at 6 p.m. Friday. The Bulldogs open the regular season on Nov. 6 against Southeast Missouri State.

The SEC coaches also picked Bulldog senior center Teaira McCowan as the preseason Player of the Year, while graduate transfer Anriel Howard was named preseason first team All-SEC.

The pair are the SEC’s active career rebounders, with McCowan’s 1,015 boards sitting just ahead of Howard’s 1,002.

McCowan is coming off an All-American season that saw her earn the inaugural Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year Award after averaging 18.2 points and an SEC-leading 13.9 rebounds per game.

The Brenham, Texas, native set SEC records with 544 rebounds and 29 double-doubles. Her rebound total was the second-best in NCAA Division I history.

McCowan, who tallied five 20-point, 20-rebound games a year ago, averaged 17.7 ppg and an SEC-best 14.4 rpg in leading the Bulldogs to a perfect 16-0 league record.

Last season, Howard eclipsed 1,000 career rebounds after averaging a double-double for the second straight year with 12.1 ppg and 12.2 rpg.

The Texas A&M career rebounding leader, Howard tallied 20 double-doubles, giving her 32 over her first three seasons.

The Atlanta native collected 22 double-figure scoring games in 2017-18, and had 10-plus boards in 30 games.
McCowan is the nation’s top returning rebounder from a season ago while Howard is third, just behind Iowa’s Megan Gustafson.

Joining Howard and McCowan on the All-SEC first team were Caliya Robinson of Georgia; Maci Morris of Kentucky; Sophie Cunningham of Missouri; South Carolina’s Tyasha Harris, Tennessee’s Rennia Davis; and Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter.