STARKVILLE — All basketball coaches want their teams to be unselfish, but Mississippi State’s Sam Purcell is a little worried that his Bulldogs are unselfish to a fault.
“I’ve joked about this, our fans might need to bring baseball gloves because we are slinging that ball,” Purcell said Tuesday. “It’s not that we’re bad passers, it’s that we love the home run pass. We love to thread the needle, we love to make the showtime pass, and sometimes it’s just a simple old-school jump stop and making the simple pass (that works).”
MSU is a guard-heavy squad heading into Purcell’s third season in Starkville, which begins Thursday evening at Humphrey Coliseum against Memphis. Fifth-year senior Jerkaila Jordan is the Bulldogs’ unquestioned leader and one of just three returners along with junior wing Debreasha Powe and sophomore post player Quanirah Montague. Of the six transfers MSU added in the offseason, five are either guards or play primarily on the wing.
Eniya Russell joined the Bulldogs after two years at Kentucky and played two seasons at South Carolina before that, and she scored 15 and 14 points, respectively, in two games against MSU last year. Purcell also brought in Chandler Prater from Oklahoma State, who is coming off a torn Achilles tendon but averaged 9.5 points per game two years ago as a starter at Kansas.
“The players he’s brought in can really help us a lot,” Jordan said. “They (take) the pressure off me because there are so many threats on the court. We’re very versatile. We can go big, we can go small, we have glue players.”
The Bulldogs’ post depth is a bit thin — replacing two-time all-Southeastern Conference center Jessika Carter is no easy task — but MSU added Kayla Thomas in the transfer portal from Georgia Southern and also has 6-foot, 6-inch center Madina Okot from Kenya. Rocío Jiménez, a 6-foot, 7-inch center from the Dominican Republic, enrolled early last year but did not play due to an injury.
Purcell even included Powe, best known as a 3-point sharpshooter, as part of his frontcourt rotation. The other bigs can stretch the floor occasionally as well — Purcell said Montague made two 3-pointers in a closed preseason scrimmage.
“If our post players do what they’ve been doing in practice when the lights come on, our fan base is going to be excited,” Purcell said. “Madina, everybody’s going to learn that young lady’s name really quick, and Kayla Thomas are bigs. They do the dirty work. They do the things where in today’s basketball, people don’t want. They post up in the paint, they do all the little things to make sure we’re successful.”
Scouting Memphis
The Tigers (1-0) opened their season Monday with an 89-78 home win over Mississippi Valley State, led by a 26-point, 17-rebound effort from Hannah Riddick. They also played an exhibition game at home against defending national champion South Carolina on Oct. 15, losing 106-63. Memphis is in its second year under head coach Alex Simmons, who went 13-17 last season.
The Bulldogs defeated the Tigers 81-63 on the road last year behind 21 points from Jordan and a double-double from Carter. Memphis plays an up-tempo style of basketball and will run a full-court press, so taking care of the ball is critical. Purcell said his team needs to limit the turnovers to 14 or fewer to have a chance. MSU turned the ball over 14.1 times per game last year, the third-fewest in the SEC.
The Tigers are also among the country’s top rebounding teams, so the Bulldogs will need to get their post rotation figured out quickly.
“Our fans can expect a team that’s going to press, they’re going to try to make it ugly,” Purcell said. “Obviously we’re familiar with them because we played them last year, and we have a lot of respect. The head coach has done a great job in the transfer portal bringing in some really good players, so it should be an absolute dogfight.”
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