STARKVILLE — Jalen Steele has had a lot of people tell him he can’t do something.
Between his hometown university not wanting him, the coach he initially signed with getting fired, and the tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his left knee, the 6-foot-3 guard has overcome some bumps along the way.
“When I was back home (last summer) and I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, I don’t think I can do it’, but then I just pushed myself to the point of saying, ‘I got to do it,” Steele said.
The last hurdle in Steele’s college basketball career may be his most
difficult. But as the sophomore closes in on 100-percent health after suffering a knee injury nearly a year ago, his shot remains as sharp as ever. Steele demonstrated that talent Saturday night, going 5-for-8 from 3-point range and scoring 15 points off the bench to lead the No. 18 Mississippi State University men’s basketball team to a 78-77 overtime victory against Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
“At the beginning of the game I was feeling it,” Steele said. “Coach (Rick Stansbury) said to just go out there and keep shooting it. I kept my confidence and kept going out there to shoot it.”
Steele’s long-range effort at Memorial Gymnasium epitomizes how far he has come since he was injured last February in an 84-82 loss vs. LSU. Steele landed awkwardly after diving out of bounds for a loose ball and had to be helped from the Humphrey Coliseum court by MSU trainer Scott Johnson.
“It feels like the game is easier now,” Steele said. “The injury kind of set me back, but now I can see the floor more. I can see what I can do and what I can’t. It’s making me slow down.”
A full summer of rehabilitation and conditioning left no doubt in Steele’s mind he was ready. He also gained a new sense of appreciation for hard work.
“Rehab is definitely harder than any practice,” Steele said. “Practice you have to learn stuff, but rehab you have to go through the pain and get strength back.”
Steele still was physically limited when MSU traveled overseas last summer to play in Europe. He wasn’t allowed a ‘full-go’ status until team workouts last October.
“I’m almost there (with my health), at about 95 percent,” Steele said. “I think comes SEC tournament time is when I’ll be full 100 percent. ”
Steele is averaging 7.3 points per game this season for No. 18 MSU (16-4, 3-2 Southeastern Conference), which plays host to LSU at 7 tonight (WCBI). He is making 37 percent (34 of 92) of his 3-pointers.
“That’s what (Steele) does, he shoots,” MSU freshman guard Rodney Hood said. “He opens everything else up for everybody else. They can’t trap as much or help as much off of Jalen as they would like to, and it opens things for Dee (Bost) and the rest of the guys.”
The Knoxville, Tenn., native’s road to MSU began when the University of Tennessee coaching staff, then led by coach Bruce Pearl, ignored him even though he averaged 24.1 points. 6.4 rebounds, two assists, and two steals as a senior at Fulton High School. He became the school’s first player to reach 2,000 points for a career.
Steele scored 30 or more points seven times that season, including a career-high 46 in the Region 2AA playoffs.
The University of Alabama, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, UCLA, and Cincinnati all showed interest, but Steele decided to sign early with Auburn University, the program that had tracked him from the first day in the recruiting process.
“Jalen Steele is a kid who is a winner,” Jeff Lebo said in November 2009. “He has won two state championships. He is one of the top perimeter shooters in the country. He will be a guy … who is going to be able to come in and shoot the ball from the perimeter for us.”
Steele never got that chance because Auburn dismissed Lebo the following March. Current Tigers coach Tony Barbee released Steele from his scholarship less than a month after he was hired.
Stansbury called the Steele house with an offer he couldn’t imagine was still available: a full scholarship at a Southeastern Conference school.
“(Jalen Steele has) got a great defensive mind,” Stansbury said in a statement the day Steele signed with MSU a week after being released from Auburn. “He’s got great strength, and he’s got one thing you can’t teach, and that’s the ability to shoot that basketball. But the thing that really stands out is his family. They are very supportive of him, and they are great people.”
Steele will get his opportunity to erase some mental demons when he faces LSU in a key conference contest.
“I’ve always said Jalen is the one guy that does something different on this basketball team,” Stansbury said Monday. “He is capable of doing what he did, jump up and make shots. He’s the one guy, if you ask me what his role is, it is to make shots.”
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