Macie Phifer has parlayed a strong freshman season into becoming an SEC player.
The former Ingomar star announced Monday that she has committed to play basketball for Mississippi State. The decision came less than a week after she entered the transfer portal.
Phifer started all 32 games for Middle Tennessee State this past season. The 6-foot-1 guard averaged 11.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and she shot 35% from 3-point range. She was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman team and also earned honorable mention All-CUSA honors.
“I’ve been praying about it, and I thought the Lord was calling me to step out in faith and see what options are out there,” Phifer said.
She visited both MSU and Ole Miss this past weekend. Phifer said she loves both coaching staffs but that State “just felt like home.” She grew up a Bulldog fan, and her younger sister Bella will be a freshman at MSU this fall.
“I love coach (Sam) Purcell’s vision for me and how we’re going to go moving forward and how we’re going to progress as a team,” Phifer said. “I love the girls that he had recruited; I knew a good bit of them, or knew of them if I didn’t know them personally. It just seemed like the perfect fit, and everything aligned for me to end up there.”
In high school, Phifer became the area’s most decorated girls athlete of all time. She was named Miss Basketball – given to the state’s top player in each class – twice, and she was named the Daily Journal Player of the Year twice as well. Phifer led Ingomar to four state championships. She was also a volleyball star, winning two Miss Volleyball awards, one Daily Journal Player of the Year award and three state titles.
As much as she enjoyed her time at MTSU, Phifer said the pull of her home state was too strong to ignore.
“Honestly, my heart was still really connected to Mississippi, and the thought of getting to represent my state was really special to me,” she said.
Phifer is the second transfer MSU has landed since the portal opened April 7. Going from a mid-major to the SEC will be a challenge, but Phifer feels her freshman season has prepared her well. Middle Tennessee played games against Auburn, MSU and Tennessee this past season, and Phifer said she loves the physicality and speed of the game she saw from those teams.
“I really liked playing that style of basketball. Middle Tennessee, they might be mid-major, but we are coached and we run our program like a Power 4 team, and that’s how I was coached. I think they got me prepared for the physicality and the pace of play at this level at Middle Tennessee.”
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