The Mississippi State Bulldogs plays NCAA Men's Basketball in the Southeast Conference. They have won the regular season conference title 6 times in school history, the last coming in 2004. They've also won the SEC Tournament twice in 1996 and 2002. The 1996 team was arguably the best in school history. Led by the dynamic duo of future NBA first round draft choices Erick Dampier and Dontae' Jones, the Bulldogs not only won the conference tournament title that season, but went to the Final Four. The school has made eight NCAA Tournament appearances, and has added five appearances in the NIT. The team is also famous for their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 1963. Back then, most of the schools in the SEC were still segregated. When they drew Loyola of Chicago in the first round, the team was ordered by the Governor of Mississippi not to play, primarily because Loyola had four African-American starters. But in what many considered a small victory in the long struggle for Civil Rights, then head coach Babe McCarthy sneaked the team out of Starkville to travel to Michigan to play the game. In 2008, the Bulldogs won the regular season Western Division title of the SEC, and are expected to play in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.