For the second consecutive year the NCAA women’s basketball national champions will be coming to the Humphrey Coliseum.
LSU, who beat Iowa in April’s national championship game in Dallas, will make the trip to Starkville this winter as part of Mississippi State’s Southeastern Conference home schedule, which was announced Wednesday morning.
Also included in MSU’s home slate is Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Florida and Kentucky.
MSU, which returned to the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time since 2019, beating Illinois and Creighton before falling to Notre Dame in the Second Round, won’t be making the return to Baton Rouge next season, but will play 2023 Final Four participant and 2022 national champions South Carolina in Columbia.
The Bulldogs will also travel to Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Florida and Kentucky.
MSU (22-11, 9-7 SEC last season) returns its top two scorers in graduate center Jessika Parker (14.8 PPG) and senior guard JerKaila Jordan (11.9 PPG). Sam Purcell, in his second season as head coach, also signed a strong transfer class, adding Seton Hall’s Lauren Park-Lane, a grad transfer that was named an All-Big East first teamer last season after averaging 20.9 points per game and breaking Seton Hall’s single-season points record with 686, Darrion Rogers, an All-Big East second teamer at DePaul who averaged 16.8 points per game and Arkansas’ Erynn Barnum, who averaged 15 points per game and was an All-SEC second team nominee.
The Bulldogs also signed three four-star freshman in forward Quanirah Cherry-Montague (No. 48 in ESPN’s Top 100), guard Jasmine Brown (No. 54) and guard Mjarcle Sheppard (No. 86).
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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