Mississippi State men’s basketball’s last scholarship roster addition of the offseason is an impactful one.
Former Michigan State guard Rocket Watts announced his intention to transfer to the Bulldogs on Saturday, according to his Instagram account. Watts chose to attend school in Starkville over Creighton and DePaul.
A 6-foot-2 shooting guard who can play the point, Watts averaged 7.6 points and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 33.6 percent from the field in his freshman season with the Spartans. In high school, Watts was a four-star recruit according to 247Sports and was the 39th-best prospect in the nation for the class of 2019.
He becomes the fourth MSU addition via the transfer portal this offseason, joining North Carolina forward Garrison Brooks, Memphis forward D.J. Jeffries and North Carolina State point guard Shakeel Moore.
Mississippi State coach Ben Howland is likely surprised his staff landed both of their backcourt targets in Watts and Moore, considering the seventh-year coach told reporters in April he anticipated D.J. Stewart would wait until July’s deadline to decide whether to remain in the NBA draft or not. At that time, Moore had not committed yet, and the Bulldogs had one scholarship to offer, not two.
Stewart did MSU a favor by signing with an agent in the sense that if he wasn’t going to come back, at least he decided early, because any transfer portal addition MSU made after May was likely going to have to sit out a year in compliance with NCAA rules.
After a strong offseason of impact additions and an NIT runner-up finish to close out last season, pressure will be on Howland to deliver an NCAA tournament appearance after a two-year absence, with the obvious caveat the 2020 SEC tournament was canceled.
MSU will have a proven backcourt scoring presence returning in Iverson Molinar along with the Southeastern Conference’s leading rebounder in Tolu Smith to plug in with the four transfers, incoming freshmen and the young pieces already on the roster that saw valuable minutes throughout last year.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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