MSU’S Hayes picked as ALL-SEC Freshman
It’s been a frustrating year for Mississippi State women’s basketball, but one of the bright spots has been the play of freshman Madison Hayes.
The Chattanooga, Tennessee, native was one of the big priorities for first-year coach Nikki Mccray-penson to keep in the signing class when she took the job and Hayes followed through with her signing and stuck with the Bulldogs.
Hayes was a top 25 player nationally and Mcdonald’s All-american selection as well as the state of Tennessee’s Miss Basketball before arriving to Starkville.
It turned out to be a big win for Mccray-penson as
Hayes was honored by the Southeastern Conference by being selected to the Allfreshman team. It was the second-straight year that the Bulldogs had an All-freshman selection as Rickea Jackson made the list a season ago. There have been 14 players in school history to make the list including players like Teaira Mccowan, Victoria Vivians, Morgan William, Latoya Thomas and Tan White.
The impact for Hayes has been immediate and much larger than the stat sheet has said. She is averaging 4.6 points a game this year and making 43% of her shots while bringing down 4.7 rebounds a game which is second on the team. Her energy and hustle, however, has been even more noticeable and it earned her a spot in the starting lineup during much of SEC play as a starter now in the last eight games.
Noticeably missing from the ALL-SEC list was any Bulldog on the first or second team. While MSU is struggling through a 10-8 season with a 5-7 record in SEC play, the Bulldogs didn’t have a player on either of the teams for the first time since 2008. Jackson was slated as a preseason first-team member and Jessika Carter second team a year after both made the second team after the season.
Jackson’s scoring dropped from 15.1 as a freshman to 14.9 this season with rebounding down from 5.1 to 4.6. Carter’s actually went up slightly from 13 points a game and 8.7 rebounds to 14.3 and 8.8, but neither were selected to the ALL-SEC teams.
MSU finished below third in the SEC for the first time since 2013-14. It’s the first time since that season that the Bulldogs have a losing record in conference play as well. They are heading to Greenville,
S.C. this week to defend five-straight SEC Tournament championship game appearances, but this year will be a much tougher road as State plays as the No. 9 seed on Thursday at 10 a.m.
If the Bulldogs win that game, they get the No. 1 seeded Texas A&M Aggies at 10 a.m. on Friday in the quarterfinals. MSU hasn’t been one and done in the tournament since 2013 in Vic Schaefer’s first season as head coach.
All games in the SEC Tournament can be seen on SEC Network.