Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans secured his first transfer portal commitment of the offseason Sunday night with the addition of Ja’Borri McGhee, a combo guard from Alabama-Birmingham.
McGhee is originally from McComb, in south Mississippi, and played his high school basketball in Winfield, Alabama, where he averaged 28.4 points per game as a senior. He spent his first two college seasons at Garden City Community College in Kansas and South Plains College in Texas, putting up excellent numbers for both programs.
He started every game in his first Division I season for the Blazers, averaging 11.1 points and shooting 40.8 percent from 3-point range. He shot better than 50 percent from the floor for a team that won 24 games, finished 13-5 in the American Athletic Conference and played in the NIT.
The Bulldogs will need McGhee to make an instant impact as they are losing Claudell Harris, Riley Kugel, RJ Melendez and Kanye Clary from their backcourt. Josh Hubbard may also leave as well if NBA scouts think highly of him.
On the women’s side, freshman Tahj-Monet Bloom became the fifth MSU player to enter the portal. Bloom missed the entire 2024-25 season with an ACL injury but was a four-star recruit and a top-50 prospect in her class by ESPN. She lived in Okinawa, Japan for 10 years and played at three different high schools in the Chicago suburbs before finishing her prep career at DME Academy in Florida.
The Bulldogs have already lost starters Debreasha Powe and Madina Okot to the portal and are losing their top two scorers to graduation in Jerkaila Jordan and Eniya Russell.
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