Barring some unforeseen circumstance – heaven forbid that – Mississippi State senior Jarvis Varnado is going to demolish the NCAA career blocks record of 535, held by Wojciech Mydra of Louisiana-Monroe. After last night’s 10-block clinic in the Bulldogs’ 82-80 win over Arkansas, Varnado has 484 blocks, which means he needs just 52 to claim the record.

If Varnado can maintain his current pace of 5.3 blocks per game, he’ll have the record Feb. 20 at LSU – with four regular season games to spare. And then there’s the postseason. So let’s say he keeps up this pace, how many blocks could he get? Let’s low-ball it and say MSU does what it did last season – plays four SEC Tournament games and one NCAA tourney game. At his current pace, he’d finish his career with about 584 blocks. If MSU makes a deep NCAA run, would 600 be possible?

That’s probably a long shot, because he’s probably not going to average 5.3 per game the rest of the way. Last season, Varnado’s average in non-conference play was 5.5; in SEC play and the postseason, it was 4.2.

By the way, to break the record by the final regular season game, Varnado need only average 3.7 blocks per game.

The countdown officially began last night, the Bulldogs’ SEC home opener. A banner has been put up inside Humphrey Coliseum counting down to the mark. Nice touch.

Next up for MSU is Saturday’s home game with Georgia (2 p.m., ESPN2). I’ve got a preview to write on that, so I’d better get on it.