• Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard leads the SEC in scoring, averaging 23 points per game.
• Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope praised Hubbard as an electric scorer and the team’s leading playmaker.
• Kentucky is looking for its first SEC win after an 0-2 start, while Mississippi State is on a six-game winning streak.

LEXINGTON — So much of the focus on Josh Hubbard is his scoring ability.

And rightly so.

Hubbard, a junior guard for Mississippi State, is averaging an SEC-best 23 points per game, which is tied for fifth nationally. But Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope said Hubbard isn’t simply a scorer.

“He’s their leading assist guy by far,” said Pope, alluding to Hubbard’s 3.7 assists per game, more than twice as many as his closest teammate.

Stream Kentucky vs. Mississippi State

Pope and the Wildcats will try to do their best to keep Hubbard in check tonight as they host the Bulldogs at Rupp Arena.

Hubbard is fresh off scoring 30 points in a home win over Oklahoma. He has two other 30-plus-point efforts this season, while he’s scored 20 or more 10 times. Hubbard has reached double figures in every game but one in 2025-26; he played just two minutes before exiting with an injury versus San Francisco last month.

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Removing the red tape and raising the funding cap for hospitals is a priority for some Mississippi lawmakers. They’re trying to make it easier to access more funding for facility improvements or equipment upgrades without needing approval from the State Board of Health.

A bill to lift spending restrictions for hospitals passed in the House and Senate during the 2025 Legislative Session, but Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) vetoed it. Lawmakers said the part Reeves didn’t like was removed.

“The whole intent is to be able to make healthcare more widely available, more cost effective and more efficient for providers and for our citizens in Mississippi,” said State Rep. Sam Creekmore IV (R-District 14).

According to Creekmore, the new bill doubles the capital investments that hospitals can make without applying for a certificate of need. Currently, hospitals and medical facilities can only spend so much money on facility or equipment investments.

If they want to spend more than the cap allows, they could apply for new equipment. It would require approval from the State Board of Health.

Creekmore said applying for a certificate of need to spend money can be timely, but there’s a chance the request could be denied. He said Reeves vetoed the initial bill because lawmakers approved a certificate of need for St. Dominic to allow psychiatric care after St. Dominic closed the unit in the past.

GLENDALE, Ariz.— Carson Beck scrambled for a 3-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left, and Miami will head back home for a shot at its first national championship since 2001 after beating Mississippi 31-27 in an exhilarating College Football Playoff semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday night.

The 10th-ranked Hurricanes (13-2) had their vaunted defense picked apart by the sixth-ranked Rebels (13-2) in a wild fourth quarter, falling into a 27-24 hole after Trinidad Chambliss threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Dae’Quan Wright with 3:13 left.

Beck, who won a national title as a backup at Georgia, kept the Hurricanes calm amid the storm, leading them down the field for the winning score — and a shot at a national title on their home field at Hard Rock Stadium on Jan. 19. Beck is 37-5 as a starter, including two seasons at Georgia.

The sixth-seeded Rebels lost their coach before the playoff, but not their cool.

If anything, Lane Kiffin’s decision to bolt for LSU seemed to harden Ole Miss’ resolve, pushing the Rebels to the best season in school history — and within a game of their first national championship game.

Ole Miss kept Miami within reach when its offense labored and took a 19-17 lead on Lucas Carneiro’s fourth field goal, from 21 yards.

Malachi Toney, the hero of Miami’s opening CFP win over Texas A&M, turned a screen pass into a 36-yard touchdown that put Miami up 24-19.

Chambliss’ TD pass to Wright put the Rebels back on top, but improbable run came to an end when the defense couldn’t hold the Hurricanes.

But what a run it was.

With Pete Golding calling the shots after being promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach, and most of the assistants sticking around, the Rebels blew out Tulane to open the playoff and took down mighty Georgia in the CFP quarterfinals.

They faced a different kind of storm in the Hurricanes.

Miami has rekindled memories of its 2001 national championship team behind a defense that went from porous to nearly impenetrable in its first season under coordinator Corey Hetherman.

The Hurricanes walled up early in the Fiesta Bowl, holding Ole Miss to minus-1 yard.

One play revved up the Rebels and their rowdy fans.

Kewan Lacy, the nation’s third-leading rusher, burst through a hole up the middle for a 73-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter — the longest run allowed by Miami’s defense since 2018.

The Hurricanes seemed content to grind away at the Rebels in small chunks offensively, setting up CharMar Brown’s 4-yard touchdown run and a field goal.

Miami unlocked the deep game just before halftime, taking advantage of a busted coverage for a 52-yard touchdown pass from Beck to Keelan Marion.