Anytime something good happens to Jarvis Varnado or Barry Stewart, Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Stansbury will say, “It couldn’t have happened to better people.”
Typically, a coach praising his players has to be taken with a grain of salt, but in the cases of Stewart and Varnado, Stansbury is right on.
In a time when basketball heroes are typically around for one year before dashing to the NBA, Stewart and Varnado stayed at MSU for four years, devoted to their team and their fans.
Varnado will enter the NBA draft this summer, and will leave Starkville as one of the most decorated Dawgs in the history of the university’s basketball program. He is the NCAA all-time leading shot blocker, by more than a few, and is at or near the top of the list in numerous categories at MSU. Varnado is second all-time in rebounds at MSU with 1,096, 13th in scoring with 1,403 points and has started more games at MSU than anyone with 119 career starts.
Stewart has often taken the back burner to the shot-blocking Varnado, but has had nearly as prolific of a career at MSU as his four-year roommate. Stewart scored 1,602 points in his time in Starkville, good for seventh on the list. He is first in minutes played at 4,431 and first in both 3-pointers made (280) and 3-pointers attempted (779). Those numbers are eighth and fifth, respectively, in all-time SEC history.
Every year coaches and fans have to say goodbye to a few players, but this year may be one of the hardest goodbyes Stansbury and the Bulldog faithful have ever had to say.
Varnado and Stewart have left a huge mark on Mississippi State. Neither will be forgotten, and both will be missed.