Purcell revives women’s basketball at State, best could be yet to come

Mississippi State women's basketball lost a heartbeat when head coach Vic Schaefer left in 2020.

What Sharon Fanningotis had built from the ground up was taken to another level under Schaefer as he took the Bulldog fans to places they have never been. He proved to State fans that impossible doesn't exist and gave them a love for a sport that many of them had nev- er known existed.

With his exit, the heart began to fail. MSU missed out on postseason in Nikki Mccray-penson's first season and the coach left the team before her second year leaving Bulldogs with a depleted roster and an interim coach in Doug Novak who had never been around women's basketball.

While Novak worked some miracles with the seven-player roster by the middle of the season, MSU missed postseason again. The next hire needed to be someone who brought energy, someone who brought a passion for the game and could get the Bulldogs back on top.

There were plenty that were skeptical that Sam Purcell would be the one to revive a program's energy and get that love for women's basketball back in Starkville. Fans weren't the only ones that weren't sure about what the coach and the were warranted.

Purcell has spent nearly 20 years in college basketball but hasn't taken a job. According to coach Jeff Walz when I talked to him the day Purcell was hired, that was for good reason. Purcell had been waiting for an opportunity that made sense for him – a job where people care about women's basketball that has proven it can be a winner. MSU fit the bill.

The narrative was out there for detractors. Purcell was just a really good recruiter. He was a cheerleader on the bench. He definitely doesn't know how to run a program. He's going to be exposed in the Southeastern Conference.

Purcell didn't have a giftwrapped NCAA Tournafirst year questions

Mississippi State women’s basketball head coach Sam Purcell, right, visits with his team in the locker room after the win over Creighton in the NCAA Tournament. (Photo by Kevin Snyder, MSU Athletics, for Starkville Daily News)

ment team. He first had to recruit some major players back to his team. Anastasia Hayes was considering finishing her career and starting a professional journey overseas or in the WNBA. Jessika Carter hadn't played in over a year and was rumored to be heading to the transfer portal.

There was Denae Carter who had a season-ending knee injury after a freshman ALL-SEC season. Longtime starting point guard Myah Taylor had already left for Ole Miss and there could have been more to follow, but Purcell locked in the three key returners.

Next was securing freshman Debreasha Powe to stay with the Bulldogs and they did just that. The rest of the roster was going to come from the transfer portal. Ahlana Smith and Ramani Parker were the first as they followed Purcell from Louisville. He grabbed Atlantic 10 guard Asianae Johnson to bring some speed, toughness and scoring ability to the team. Kourtney Weber was another key addition from Florida State as she was looking for a new opportunity.

By November, all of those players were beginning to mesh. All different players from different walks of life and different journeys found a way to make it work. Purcell shared a vision to his team, they bought in and the wins came.

“Just him and what he stands for and his purpose, he's a great coach, but he's a better person,” Smith said. “I know that he will take care of the X's and O's, and I know that everybody is going to love him for him and I think that makes the job much easier.”

There were some ups and downs in year one. The Bulldogs went on a couple of different losing streaks in SEC play. They lost to rival Ole Miss twice for the first time in two decades. They were blown out on the road at Georgia in what was the absolute low of the season.

Perhaps the most promising thing about Purcell is how he and his team rebounded. He came back to practice, set out chairs in a circle and the team poured it out. A week later, they knocked off Tennessee in overtime. MSU went on to win five of six games in a stretch toward the end of the season.

Purcell became the winningest first-year coach in Bulldog history this year after a 22-11 mark and won nine conference games. He became the eighth coach since 1980 inside the SEC to win 22 or more games. He won two NCAA Tournament games and took MSU to the brink of making a Sweet 16 in year one with a heartbreaking 53-48 loss to Notre Dame.

His passion is evident, but Purcell's diligence to better his craft is glowing. The mark of a well-coached team is getting better as the year goes and this team did it. Now, the Bulldogs look to sustain it.

“When I hired my staff, our goal was to bring the returners back because we knew how special it was, go in the portal and get some good kids and try to make as many positive statements as we could in year one,” Purcell said. “It just wasn't basketball. We were fortunate this year to have a top 15 attendance in the country that values women's basketball. We wanted to give back to the community as much as they gave back to us. My young women had the highest GPA turnaround of any sport on campus, and then what they did this year on national television in a week where we went from, are they getting in the first four outs, and now being a team that said, why were they seeded like they were.?

“All we wanted to do was let the world know that Mississippi State is a special place with special people, and we plan on doing special things, and I think we did that in year one.”

Purcell and his team certainly showed that MSU isn't dead. Women's basketball is still alive and well in Starkville and the best could be yet to come.

Robbie Faulk is a sport writer covering Mississippi State women’s basketball for The Starkville Daily News. The opinions in this column are Faulk’s and not necessarily the views of The SDN or its staff.