MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — Debreasha Powe is making a name for herself as a sharpshooting wing at Mississippi State, coming off a sophomore season in which she shot 40 percent from 3-point range.

But once her playing days are over, Powe hopes to remain involved in sports as a broadcaster. She is currently interning as a sideline reporter for French Camp Academy football games and for MSU athletics’ broadcast staff, and is majoring in communication with a concentration in broadcast and digital journalism.

“I don’t want to leave sports. I love basketball and I just love sports in general,” Powe said Wednesday at SEC Media Days. “I’m always watching reporters, I’m always watching the previews before the games, the halftime shows. It just spiked my interest.”

Powe said she looks up to Andraya Carter, a former basketball player at Tennessee who now works as a basketball analyst for ESPN and SEC Network. Carter and her team received rave reviews during last year’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament, and she visited the Bulldogs before last season to provide media training.

“I actually got a chance to interview her for a class project. It was a great experience to be able to speak with her and pick her mind and ask her questions,” Powe said. “I never thought about sideline reporting, so to be able to do that, it was an amazing experience.”

Bulldogs head coach Sam Purcell traveled to Meridian to meet with Powe immediately after he took the MSU job in 2022, and he was able to land the four-star recruit and top-100 national prospect in her class. Powe led Meridian High School to its first-ever girls basketball state championship as a senior and was named Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year.

Since arriving in Starkville, she has started 66 out of a possible 68 games, and her 66 made 3-pointers last season were the most by a Bulldog in five years.

“She’s coming after your jobs,” Purcell told reporters at MSU’s on-campus media day on Oct. 3. “She’s a part of my leadership council. She’s a leader for my team. The young lady’s a winner. There’s no doubt 15 or 20 years from now, I’m going to see her on ESPN doing big-time things with sports.”

Purcell’s new slogan: ‘Own It’

In his first season with MSU, it was “Why Not Us?” Last year, it was simply “One.” After the Bulldogs faded down the stretch and missed the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Purcell introduced his new tagline for his third year in Starkville: “Own It.”

That means owning up to mistakes — Powe said she missed a rebound in practice Tuesday and Purcell chewed her out — but it also means embracing the new era of college sports, with players able to move schools easily via the transfer portal and profit off their name, image and likeness.

“He’s basically telling us to own every opportunity, own every mistake, hold each other accountable, hold the coaches accountable and hold ourselves accountable,” fifth-year senior guard Jerkaila Jordan said. “We learned from last season, so this year, (we’re) just taking this season head-on, strong, and just going out there and giving our all.”

Jordan and Powe are the Bulldogs’ lone returning starters, and forward/center Quanirah Montague is the only other returner on the roster. With Jessika Carter out of eligibility and Nyayongah Gony now at Texas-San Antonio, MSU is working with a retooled frontcourt that includes Montague, redshirt freshman Rocío Jiménez, Madina Okot from Kenya and Georgia Southern transfer Kayla Thomas.

Thomas played her first two college seasons at Penn State before coming to Georgia Southern, and came to MSU along with Anita Howard, her head coach for the Eagles who was hired as an assistant for the Bulldogs in April. Purcell said Okot took just two days to pass the program’s conditioning test that usually takes three months.

“(Montague) was one of the top 50 high school recruits in the country two years ago who waited her turn. We were lucky to get Kayla Thomas in the transfer portal. She’s a young lady who’s going to shock a lot of people. And then I’ve got a sleeper, Madina from Kenya,” Purcell said. “I’m excited about being able to have two in, two out, and have a rotation where we can avoid foul trouble and have plenty of bodies to throw out there.”

New pool installed at Purcell house for win over LSU

The Purcell family bought a trampoline for their daughters after the Bulldogs’ win over Tennessee in 2023, but last year, the girls upped the ante, requesting a pool if MSU beat defending national champion LSU in late January.

Sure enough, Jordan — who grew up in New Orleans — scored 24 points to lead the Bulldogs to the victory, and Purcell’s three daughters can now go for a swim in the comfort of their own home.

“I’ve seen the new pool. Comes with a hot tub,” Jordan said. “We got the pool from the LSU game, so hopefully we can make another bet this year.”