Plenty of stuff to catch you up on this morning, and not just basketball. But we will begin with a little hoopage.

• OPINION OFFERING: I talk MSU basketball in my first column since returning to work. I was still a very interested observer while on the sidelines, and the lesson that was reinforced by both my accident and MSU’s recent swoon is this: You never know what’s right around the corner. And if I might add to that: Carpe diem, people. Nothing is guaranteed.

• VARNADO RACKS UP AWARDS: MSU senior Jarvis Varnado is going to need a new trophy case soon. He was named the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year yesterday, for the third consecutive year. He was also on the all-defensive team (duh) and made the eight-man All-SEC first team. Also on Tuesday, he was named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-District IV team, a 10-man roster. And this morning, The Sporting News named him the nation’s top defender.

More awards to come for Varnado, I’m sure.

• BULLDOG BASEBALL: The Bulldog baseball team returns to the diamond tonight against Western Kentucky. All you military folks can get in free with your military ID. Sweet. It’s the final game of State’s 12-game season-opening homestand. MSU is 8-3 and, it seems, is getting better at playing defense (only four errors in four games last weekend). Senior Tyler Whitney (0-0, 9.00 ERA) will take the hill and try to regain his form. Offensively, things are going pretty well. MSU is batting .299 as a team, led by senior Luke Adkins’ .421 average. And senior Connor Powers has been an absolute beast. He hit 19 home runs all of last season; he’s already got seven this season, to go with 25 RBIs (both lead the SEC).

This weekend, MSU will play Oklahoma, UCLA and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the Whataburger Classic in Corpus Christi.

• SEC TOURNEY PICK ‘EM: Back to hoops, remember to enter our Reed’s SEC Tournament Pickem contest, and see how you fare against people like yours truly. You can win cool stuff.