Mississippi State head coach Sam Purcell is always challenging Bulldogs fans to sell out Humphrey Coliseum, and he will have a few golden chances to get his wish granted this coming winter.
MSU released its Southeastern Conference schedule Wednesday for the 2024-25 season, and the Bulldogs will host defending national champion South Carolina on Jan. 5, rival Ole Miss on Jan. 19 and former head coach Vic Schaefer’s Texas Longhorns on Feb. 27. Other home opponents for MSU include Oklahoma (Jan. 9), Auburn (Jan. 23), Arkansas (Feb. 6), Alabama (Feb. 9) and Texas A&M (Feb. 23).
The Bulldogs’ road conference opponents are Kentucky (Jan. 2), Georgia (Jan. 12), Tennessee (Jan. 16), Missouri (Jan. 27), LSU (Feb. 2), Vanderbilt (Feb. 13), Florida (Feb. 16) and Auburn (Mar. 2). Auburn is the only SEC team MSU will face twice.
The conference opener against the Wildcats in Lexington will be a homecoming for Bulldogs guard Eniya Russell, who transferred from Kentucky to MSU in the spring. The two teams split a pair of matchups in 2023-24, with Russell scoring 15 points in the first meeting and 14 in the second.
Schaefer coached the Bulldogs from 2012 until 2020, compiling a 221-62 record and taking MSU to back-to-back national championship games in 2017 and 2018. He won a pair of SEC titles before taking the Texas job in 2020, and has twice reached the Elite Eight with the Longhorns.
The Bulldogs will be led by fifth-year senior guard Jerkaila Jordan and junior sharpshooting wing Debreasha Powe, their only two returning starters. MSU also overhauled its coaching staff, hiring four new assistant coaches, and added six players in the transfer portal.
In non-conference play, the Bulldogs have just two games confirmed on their schedule — a matchup with Jacksonville in Orlando, Florida as part of the WBCA Showcase on Nov. 24 and a trip to Georgia Tech for the ACC-SEC Challenge on Dec. 4.
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