Productive freshman Mjracle Sheppard to enter transfer portal
Mississippi State is down to just one player from the women’s basketball freshmen class.
According to sources, freshman point guard Mjracle Sheppard has joined Jasmine Brown-Hagger in the portal as the Washington native entered on Thursday morning.
It was a productive season as the Bulldogs’ backup point guard for Sheppard as she was State’s sparkplug off of the bench defensively. Sheppard played in all 36 games this season with one start and she averaged 17.8 minutes a game.
On the year, Sheppard averaged 5.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals. She made 44% of her shots on the season while hitting 65% from the free throw line.
Sheppard scored in double figures three times this season with a season-high 14 points against Jacksonville. Her best performance came when State knocked off the defending National Champions of LSU when Sheppard came off the bench and delivered 28 minutes of stellar basketball.
In the win over the Tigers, Sheppard had 12 points and had six steals against star Hailey Van Lith with five assists and four rebounds. She wasn’t able to replicate that performance following that game, but the Bulldogs weren’t able to, either, as State lost six of its last seven ball games heading into postseason.
In the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, Sheppard scored a total of 17 points in three games.
Sheppard won back-to-back National Championships in high school with Montverde in Florida after transferring from her homestate of Washington. She was a top 100 recruit and committed to the Bulldogs over Xavier.
Sheppard joins Brown-Hagger and Nyayongah Gony so far in the portal for State and the roster is down to just six players for the 2024-25 season with a three-player high school class coming through as well. Second-team All-SEC guard Jerkaila Jordan has announced her return to the team while rising junior Debreasha Powe and Quanirah Montague will be back for her sophomore season.
Fans are still awaiting confirmation that Darrione Rogers will be back as well as the senior is coming off of a productive season as a backup for the Bulldogs.
MSU will also have a few new staff members. Assistant coach Corry Irvin just took a job as the new head coach at Chicago State, as first reported as a possibility by Maroon and White Daily. MWD also reported last week that MSU is parting ways with assistant coach Murriel Page and she is expected to be replaced by former Eastern Michigan head coach Fred Castro. Assistant AD for Women’s Basketball Michelle Clark-Heard also landed a head coaching job this offseason taking over at Mercer.
The Bulldogs are expected to host an important weekend of official visits starting on Friday with more information coming.
