Mississippi State promotes Gabe Lazo to Associate Head Coach for women's basketball
As the fire and heartbeat of Mississippi State’s women’s basketball program, Gabe Lazo has been invaluable for coach Sam Purcell.
Heading into his third year with Purcell in Starkville, Lazo has now made another move up the ladder within the program.
The University announced on Friday that Lazo has been promoted to the Associate Head Coach and remains the team’s Defensive Coordinator. Lazo has been critical in game planning but also a large piece of the recruiting efforts for State in the transfer portal and in high school recruiting.
“Gabe Lazo has deservedly earned the reputation as one of the top assistants in the nation and is an invaluable piece of our program,” Purcell said in a release. “His work ethic is unmatched, and he possesses an elite talent as a relentless recruiter, motivator, mentor and player developer. From his ability to identify talent and build relationships to his expertise in teaching our defensive system, his contributions are second to none. He is undoubtedly a future leader of a program.”
Lazo remaining loyal to Purcell, Bulldogs
Lazo has been a hot commodity in the coaching ranks in the last few years but has remained loyal to Purcell and the Bulldog program. He’s been key in recruiting players like Asianae Johnson, Lauren Park-Lane, Quanirah Montague, Rocio Jiminez and others in the first two recruiting/transfer portal classes and will be key again this offseason as the Bulldog look to rebuild the roster out of the portal.
The only Hispanic women’s basketball coach in the SEC this year, Lazo is a proud Cuban from Miami where he grew up playing for one of the toughest programs in the country at Miami High School. He would later play basketball for Florida International before transferring to Barry University.
Lazo started his career coaching high school basketball and built John A. Ferguson in Miami into a powerhouse inside the state of Florida. He earned Miami Herald Dade County Coach of the Year three years in a row as he helped a program struggling to win ball games to become a runner up for the state championship two years in a row in Class 8A.
The coach also spent time at FIU coaching as well as Stony Brook and George Washington. Purcell named him his first hire when the head man took the job in Starkville and Lazo handled the day-to-day operations on the grounds while Purcell finished his job coaching Louisville in the Final Four.
After two seasons helping State, Lazo is proud to spend another year in Starkville working with Purcell and helping the Bulldogs get back to the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m incredibly thankful and humble for the opportunity to advance my career at Mississippi State,” Lazo said. “I appreciate the trust that our student-athletes, administration and Coach Purcell have placed in me. We have achieved a lot over these last two seasons, and there is a clear vision for this program that I can’t wait to help accomplish. I promise that we will continue to work tirelessly to build on the rich tradition of this program and I couldn’t be more excited about the future here.”
As reported last week by Maroon and White Daily, MSU is also expected to add former Eastern Michigan head coach Fred Castro to the staff to fill the departure of Murriel Page. Purcell is also looking to add one more assistant to the staff after Corry Irvin took the head coaching job at Chicago State.
