New team, same underdog mentality for Sam Purcell's Bulldogs

Sam Purcell has no problem embracing change.

When Purcell took over as the head coach at Mississippi State in 2022, he was entering a new realm going from a top assistant to the man in charge. He entered the SEC as a first-time head coach and has been dealing with a landscape of college basketball that is constantly changing and he has no problems changing with it.

One of the biggest things that he, and everyone else, have had to combat is the transfer portal and the roster turnover that comes with it. In his first year, Purcell had to add six players to the roster and he led the Bulldogs to an NCAA Tournament berth and a second round finish. In year two, Purcell had seven new faces on the squad and State finished with more than 20 wins again while advancing to the WBIT Quarterfinal round. The Bulldogs were safely in the Big Dance again last year despite having 10 new roster players from the season before.

Now with three-straight seasons with 20 or more wins and two NCAA Tournaments under his belt, another challenge has come his way. State lost all five of its regular starters from a season ago and over 80% of its scoring left either via the transfer portal or graduation. It sent Purcell back into roster building mode through his high school recruiting class, the portal and beyond.

“In our profession it’s about relationships. No matter what the turnover may be, you have to connect to the players that you have,” Purcell said at Wednesday’s SEC Media Days in Birmingham. “When you can connect, you can make special moments. That’s what I’m most proud of going into my fourth year here at Mississippi State is those moments we were able to connect, but also at the same time make history.”

Bulldogs have a lot of new faces to gel

State brought in Ole Miss transfer forward Kharyssa Richardson, Stony Brook center Faith Wylder, North Carolina guard Trayanna Crisp and Howard point guard Saniyah King from the transfer portal. Additionally, Purcell signed a top 10 high school recruiting class with three top 100 players coming in with Madison Francis, Jaylah Lampley and Nataliyah Gray and JUCO transfer Awa Fane as well as Nigerian F Favour Nwaedozi coming in after two seasons in Japan.

Despite the massive turnover on the roster each of the last four years, that’s part of the process for Purcell in his profession. The coach loves the idea of bringing a team together and creating a roster that gels into something special.

“I absolutely love the challenge that is ahead of me, getting an entire new roster that you know what, every day we show up in practice, it means something,” Purcell said. “We know we have to get better. We know we have to fail, but most importantly we know we have to get to know each other.

“Those are the best teams that I’ve been fortunate to be part of because they have to have a dawg mentality. That’s the group I have right now. They’re dawgs.

We know our backs are against the wall. Especially, five out of the top-10 teams in the country are from the SEC. Nobody’s talking about us. Nobody is considering us. They did it last year, do it again. When you do that, all you do is fuel fire for my team. Most importantly you give us a chip. That’s the best thing a head coach can ask for.”

The early return from the players has certainly been of the positive variety.

The hard work put in during the offseason has paid off to where the returners like Chandler Prater and Destiney McPhaul can see it all coming into focus. Prater is fully healthy after entering her junior year last season coming off of Achilles surgery and was a major piece of the roster by the end of the year and has pushed her teammates hard this offseason.

“I love it. Everybody knows that I will give you all I’ve got and everybody on the team does that, too,” Prater said. “There is no walk through for us. We’re going full speed and everybody is bringing that same energy. It really is uplifting to me as a vet and leader to see people pushing themselves with me. We’re on our way to the top and fighting really hard to get there.”

State taking underdog mentality into another season

Expectations from those outside the program are relatively low as the season gets set to tipoff on November 3 at Humphrey Coliseum against Davidson. The rest of the SEC media had State tabbed as No. 10 in the league standings with no All-Conference selections.

That’s exactly where Purcell and his players like it to be at this point. They believe that their work in silence will pay off when the ball is tipped. They’ll have a chance to prove it.

“I’ve got a lot of transfers that, you know what, they had that one game that was special. Now you’re going to have plenty of games. I’ve got young ladies that haven’t danced on the big stage that are dying to compete in the toughest league in the country,” Purcell said.

“Most importantly, which I’m most excited about, is I have a group of young women that want to get to March. We share those stories. We’re up front and honest on the front end. Here are our weaknesses, but let’s turn them into strengths.

When you have that kind of mentality, our focus is trying to go 1-0. Let’s beat Davidson. If we go 1-0, who is the next opponent? When you do that, you can have a successful season.”