Fifteen years old, standing six feet and nine inches tall, Schnider Herard stepped off his airplane and onto American ground for the first time. The Haitian teenager was wearing dress pants, an old jacket and older shoes. At the luggage pickup in the Dallas airport, he waited for a suitcase holding all the belongings he had left to his name: an extra pair of socks and underwear.

Moments after retrieving the suitcase, two men approached him.

“Schnider?” one of them asked.

Herard nodded his head. He didn’t speak English, but the nervous nod was a sufficient reply. Yes, he was Schnider.

He followed the two men to their car as they tried to talk to him, each attempt as fruitless as the last. Once on the road, they used an iPhone to try some translations, first in French, then in Creole. Again, despite their best efforts, communication seemed impossible. Not…

Mississippi State unveiled its new basketball court at the Humphrey Coliseum today, not just displaying the permanent new wood floor, but sharing a clean design created to express pride in the city of Starkville and the state of Mississippi.

The two-toned court is made from a softer wood than previously used in The Hump, with the full-court stain being slightly lighter, as well. Shades of that stain, rather than paint, are used to mark the inside of the three-point arc.

The details on and around the court are where MSU highlighted its local ties. One of the more subtle details, what looks from a distance to be a design around the outside of the court, is actually a listing of all 82 counties in Mississippi. Five inches tall and painted in gray, they represent the populace of the state and the fact that the University owns property in every county…

Jack Kruger is a nerd.

He’s a 6’1”, standout catcher who has started 52 games for Mississippi State’s SEC Champion baseball team. He bats .350, owns a slugging percentage of .562 and has forearms that could earn him a lifetime gig in Hollywood playing a mob henchman. He’s got 71 hits, zero errors, and after spending an entire game squatting as a catcher in the middle of a hot, Mississippi day last Friday, he managed to hit an inside-the-park home run in the eighth inning to ensure his Bulldogs won game one of their Regional.

And he’s a big ol’ nerd.

“I just love learning,” Kruger spouted with a smile when asked what he does in his free time.

That question came, on a hunch, about seven minutes into a group interview that really should’ve ended at about the five-minute mark, and turned out to continue for another 30.

A…