BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Last season, Mississippi State’s slogan under first-year head coach Sam Purcell was, “Why not us?”
The Bulldogs had fallen on hard times since the glory years of back-to-back NCAA title game appearances in 2017 and 2018, finishing 6-10 in Southeastern Conference play in 2022. Purcell, a longtime assistant at perennial power Louisville, turned things around immediately, leading MSU back to the NCAA Tournament — where the Bulldogs got past Illinois in a First Four game, then upset Creighton before falling in the round of 32 to Notre Dame.
This season, MSU knows it can compete with the SEC’s top programs. The Bulldogs checked in at No. 25 in the preseason AP poll, and they know they can contend for a conference title and get closer to returning to the Final Four. So Purcell’s new slogan is simply, “One.”
“Right now, we are one team with one goal,” Purcell said Thursday at SEC Media Days. “We defied the odds to get Mississippi State back on the map and have everyone talk to us nice. It’s now about the next steps, and each one of those steps looks different. The culture is set. How can we give back more to a community and a state that has given so much to us?”
Last year’s team finished in the top five in the SEC in scoring, assists, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, rebounds, blocks and steals, and MSU returns the backbone of that team in senior guard JerKaila Jordan and graduate student post player Jessika Carter.
Now a sixth-year senior, Carter led the team a year ago with 14.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game while making 57% of her field goal attempts. The 6-foott-5 big did not attempt a 3-pointer last season, but said she has worked on adding that to her game over the offseason.
Jordan averaged just under 12 points per game in 2022-23 and shot above 40% from 3-point range. She was a force on the defensive end as well with 2.2 steals per game, which ranked fourth in the SEC. And her time wearing maroon and white will not be over after this season — she told The Next on Thursday that she plans to remain in Starkville for a fifth year in 2024-25.
“Jessika is expanding her game this year so she can stretch the floor, which can create (opportunities for) me to drive the lane,” Jordan said. “We play off each other, we balance off each other, we mesh well together.”
Debreasha Powe, who started every game but one last year as a freshman and chipped in with 8.2 points per contest, is back as well. The remaining two starting spots and much of the bench will comprise members of a strong freshman class and the No. 3 transfer class in the country, per 247Sports.
Point guard Lauren Park-Lane is on board after starting 120 games over four seasons at Seton Hall. She will likely be replacing Anastasia Hayes in the starting lineup, and while she may stand just 5-foot-3, Park-Lane led the nation with 260 total assists in 2021-22 and scored 20.8 points per game last winter, which ranked third in the Big East.
Darrione Rogers, a Chicago-area guard who spent three years close to home at DePaul, started every game last season for the Blue Demons and averaged 16.8 points and 5.1 assists per game. Forward Erynn Barnum came from within the SEC after four seasons at Arkansas, capped by a 2022-23 campaign in which she was named to the all-conference second team and averaged 15 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
Park-Lane, Rogers and Barnum were named among the top 25 players nationally to come out of the transfer portal by ESPN.
“We have Darrione Rogers, a great shooter, so sometimes when they’re clocking in on me, I have Darionne as somebody to shoot the ball,” Carter said. “Lauren Park-Lane (is) a great, great point guard, great facilitator. She finds me at any moment and she can also get things that she wants.”
All three of the Bulldogs’ freshmen were four-star recruits and top-100 prospects, according to espnW HoopGurlz. Forward Quanirah Montague (No. 48) and guards Jasmine Brown-Hagger (No. 54) and Mjracle Sheppard (No. 86) can all stuff the stat sheet and will be immediate rotation players for MSU.
The Bulldogs have been among the national leaders in attendance for the better part of a decade, even boasting the 15th-largest average home crowd during a down year in 2021-22. With Purcell’s relentless optimism and a roster teeming with talent at every position, MSU feels primed for another big year both on the court and in the stands, and has already sold out the lower bowl and all club level seats at a newly-renovated Humphrey Coliseum.
“When you look at the Tennessee’s, the South Carolina’s, the LSU’s, there’s a consistent behavior about them: attendance, recruiting and developing players,” Purcell said. “I’ve got the attendance, I’ve got the coaching staff to develop the players, and now I’m trying to stack another top-25 (recruiting class) so we can stay at the top in the SEC. If you stay at the top in the SEC, you have a chance to compete in Final Fours and win national championships.”
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