The first time Erynn Barnum received a direct message from Lauren Park-Lane, she thought the former Seton Hall point guard, who had just transferred to Mississippi State, was “a little weird.”
After playing for four years at Arkansas and being named to the all-Southeastern Conference second team last season, Barnum had entered the transfer portal herself for her final year of eligibility. Like the point guard she is, Park-Lane began trying to convince other players in the portal to join her in Starkville once she decided to make MSU her new home in late April.
In the case of both Barnum and Darrione Rogers, Park-Lane’s former Big East foe at DePaul, it worked. The trio gave the Bulldogs the No. 3 ranked transfer portal class in all of women’s college basketball, according to 247Sports, with all three players among the nation’s top 25 transfer additions.
“I’m going through the process, and everybody’s DMing me at this point,” Barnum said. “I see (Park-Lane) in my DMs, and she’s like, ‘Hey, come to Hail State. We need you.’ She kept DMing me and she threatened to block me. She said she would block me if I didn’t reply. She would be a good recruiting coordinator.”
It’s the size of the fight in the Dawg
Park-Lane, who stands all of 5 feet, 3 inches, grew up in Wilmington, Del., winning her home state’s high school player of the year award in 2019 while leading Sanford School to a state championship. Playing two hours from home at Seton Hall, Park-Lane became one of the best players in Pirates history, making the all-Big East first team three times and leading the nation in total assists in 2021-22.
But Park-Lane is more than just a distributor — she also developed into one of the best scorers in the country, finishing 14th nationally with 20.8 points per game last season. Despite her individual brilliance, though, Park-Lane had never led Seton Hall to the NCAA Tournament, and she figured her best chance to make it to the Big Dance was to join one of the top conferences in the land.
The Pirates played in the WNIT in each of the last two years, reaching the championship game in 2022, but Park-Lane was ready for a new challenge. MSU was a program on the rise, having made a surprise run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, and Park-Lane knew she could help accelerate the Bulldogs’ ascent back into the upper echelons of college basketball.
“It all came down to me wanting to challenge myself as a basketball player,” Park-Lane said. “I was the best player on Seton Hall’s team for a while, and I just wanted to go somewhere else and make an impact in the same way I did at Seton Hall. I have tournament dreams, being at Seton Hall I never made it to the NCAA Tournament, and of course Mississippi State had.”
Park-Lane watched MSU defeat Illinois in a First Four game last season, then upset Creighton before narrowly losing to No. 3 seed Notre Dame. With Bulldogs point guard Anastasia Hayes out of eligibility, the starting spot was open for Park-Lane, and she became the first transfer to join head coach Sam Purcell on Apr. 23.
But while Park-Lane has replaced Hayes as the director of MSU’s offense, she has drawn comparisons to another former Bulldogs point guard — one who is responsible for the most iconic moment in program history.
Morgan William was a three-year starter and averaged 9.5 points and 4.4 assists per game over her collegiate career, but is best known for the buzzer-beating jumper in the 2017 Final Four that ended Connecticut’s 111-game winning streak and sent MSU to its first-ever national championship game. The 5-foot-5-inch William was honored on the court during the Bulldogs’ win over Kennesaw State this season on Dec. 11.
“(Park-Lane) is pretty shifty, pretty fast. She can shoot the ball very well,” William said. “I can see the comparison. You have to run the show as the leader on the court.”
MSU was a change of scenery for Park-Lane in multiple ways. She had lived her entire life in the Northeast and knew very little about Mississippi before making her visit, and unlike Seton Hall, the Bulldogs were not relying on Park-Lane to be their top scorer. They already had a foundation in place from last year’s tournament team, led by veterans both in the post and in the backcourt in Jessika Carter and Jerkaila Jordan, respectively.
So when Park-Lane scored a total of 15 points in her first three games, MSU was just fine, winning all three handily. The Bulldogs’ new point guard soon found her stride, notching three double-doubles in a four-game stretch in late November capped by a 20-point, 10-rebound performance against Miami.
But her signature game so far came in Fort Collins, Colo. on Dec. 20, when she set a program record with 10 made 3-pointers to lead MSU to a come-from-behind road win over Colorado State that should age quite nicely as March approaches.
“(Purcell) says it can be anybody’s night any night,” Park-Lane said. “I just had to wait my turn. I knew I was capable. I’m a hooper. It’s just different here, but I knew I had the capability of doing that, and that was just my night.”
From rivals to teammates
Rogers, before she committed to MSU in early May, had lived her entire life in and around Chicago, becoming a five-star recruit in northwest suburban Roselle. She chose to stay close to home for college, playing for legendary coach Doug Bruno at DePaul.
The Blue Demons had appeared in 17 straight NCAA Tournaments before Rogers arrived, but struggled by their standards during her three years there, losing to Dayton in the First Four in 2022 and failing to make it that far in 2021 or 2023. That was hardly the fault of Rogers, who became a full-time starter as a sophomore and averaged 16.8 points and 5.1 assists per game as a junior.
DePaul was also blessed with fellow Chicago product Aneesah Morrow, who was named the top freshman in the country by ESPN in 2022 and was the nation’s fourth-leading scorer last year with 25.7 points per game. But Morrow and Rogers both decided to test their options last spring, and both landed in the SEC, with Morrow joining defending national champion LSU to team up with Angel Reese and Louisville transfer Hailey Van Lith.
“The SEC, I think that’s the best conference in America,” Rogers said. “There’s really nothing out here, but there’s pros and cons to that because you can just better yourself, be in the gym a lot more and not get distracted.”
Rogers’ Blue Demons teams went 3-2 over the last three years against Park-Lane and Seton Hall, and Park-Lane reached out to her former Big East rival after committing to the Bulldogs, eventually convincing Rogers to take an official visit. With Debreasha Powe slotted in as MSU’s starting wing, Rogers accepted a bench role in Starkville but has started four games so far due to various injuries to her teammates.
Her first big game came at the Van Chancellor Classic against Tulsa, when she finished 6-for-9 from 3-point range and scored 22 points in her first start as a Bulldog. Filling in for the injured Powe last Friday against Mississippi Valley State, Rogers stuffed the box score with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists for MSU’s first triple-double since 2000, and was named SEC Player of the Week for her efforts.
“I love that kid. She was one of the top transfer portal kids in the country,” Purcell said. “The sacrifices she has made to be willing to come off the bench but just handled it with class… coming out and having a triple-double speaks volumes to her character and who she is as a person.”
Calling off the Hogs
Barnum was an Arkansas kid through and through — she starred at Little Rock Central High School, of Civil Rights Movement fame, and gradually worked her way into a starting role for the Razorbacks. She played in the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and 2022, then averaged 15 points and 6.5 rebounds per game as a senior for a team that won three games in the WNIT.
Still, Barnum yearned to venture outside of her home state, and she remembered watching the Bulldogs’ Final Four teams in 2017 and 2018. Park-Lane’s badgering helped bring Barnum to Starkville, and she committed two days after Rogers. She shifted from center to power forward to start alongside Carter after having previously guarded MSU’s star post player.
“I wanted to play with great players,” Barnum said. “That was the whole point of me moving on. I was saying that I wanted to play with (Carter), and now we’re going into SEC play knowing that we’re both all-SEC players, it’s going to be great.”
Barnum missed both of the Bulldogs’ losses with an injury but has played her best basketball of the season since returning, scoring a season-best 17 points against Jackson State and recording a 15-point, 15-rebound performance against Mississippi Valley State. Next Thursday, Barnum will make her return to Fayetteville, playing in Bud Walton Arena for the first time as a visitor when MSU travels to face the Razorbacks.
“I’ve thought about it, but I live for moments like this,” Barnum said. “They’re going to have me down pat, probably. They’re going to try to have a game plan. I just have to play my game, play hard and just not think about all the outside stuff.”
The Bulldogs open SEC play at Humphrey Coliseum on Thursday night against a much-improved Vanderbilt team, with a matchup at top-ranked South Carolina to follow on Sunday. The Gamecocks and LSU are the only teams from the SEC ranked in the AP Top 25, but the likes of Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss are sure to give MSU all it can handle.
Purcell’s team exceeded outside expectations in his first season as head coach, but the transfer portal has made the Bulldogs a legitimate contender in the SEC and given them a real chance at reaching the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Each transfer has settled into her role within MSU’s system, and each has already provided the Bulldogs with moments to remember.
“First and foremost, I see them as winners,” Purcell said. “Could each of them individually have higher statistics? Probably. But they’re making sacrifices because their goals are bigger than themselves; they’re about the team. When we’ve been healthy, we’ve been all together, I’m excited to see the product that’s on the floor and where this team is going. I’m really thankful to coach such great young women.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 28 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 28 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion