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Another top 15 team on the way for Bulldogs as No. 10 Oklahoma comes to town

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•about 20 hours•

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Madina Okot (Photo by Mike Mattina, Mississippi State Athletics)

As the calendar has turned into the New Year and SEC play has arrived, it has not been kind to the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The women’s basketball team started the season 13-1 with the lone loss coming to top 15 Georgia Tech 73-70. It created optimism heading into the conference slate, but State has been met with two punishing defeats.

The Bulldogs lost 91-69 to No. 15 Kentucky and 95-68 to No. 2 South Carolina. In both games, State’s top 10 defensive unit was lit up and the offense didn’t perform how it needed to have a shot. Still, coach Sam Purcell believes he has all the pieces to turn things around early in the conference schedule.

“I don’t think there’s anything missing. I think we showed in the first quarter when you go up 22-13 on the No. 2 team in the country that you have the pieces,” Purcell said. “We’ve got to understand that how we handle this defines who we can become as a team.

“I’ve got the talent to self-improve. If everybody can have that mindset, the team gets better.”

Turnovers killing Bulldog basketball team in 2024-25

Play has been up and down in certain areas all year, but the one glaring issue with the Bulldog basketball team has been turnovers. State is among the worst in the SEC with 16.2 turnovers per game and had another 20 on Sunday against the Gamecocks that would lead to 23 points in the loss.

Purcell has spoken about the issues with turnovers since before the season began and it still hasn’t been rectified by the players. The only thing the players believe they can do is get back to work and try to learn from their mistakes.

“Watch film,” Destiney McPhaul said of the improvement. “The way you can get better is watch things that you did wrong, talk about it. Turnovers have been our biggest issue so far. We’ve got to take care of the ball.”

There have been some good individual moments this year for the Bulldogs. Jerkaila Jordan scored 26 points against the Gamecocks to push her average to 15.3 points per game and 6.6 rebounds. Eniya Russell is averaging 13.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and a team-best 4.3 assists on the year and Madina Okot has 11.9 points and 8.6 rebounds despite a two-game struggle in SEC play.

No. 10 Oklahoma another major task for State

Okot will be greatly needed on Thursday night as the Bulldogs prepare for a third-straight top 15 team as No. 10 Oklahoma comes to Humphrey Coliseum (6:30 p.m. SEC Network +. The Sooners are new to the league but were last season’s Big 12 champions and they have All-American center Raegan Beers who transferred from Oregon State.

There is no rest for the weary and the Bulldogs will have to get off the mat to have a fighting chance in the game and moving forward in the league.

“They came here for this. You’ve got to continue to focus on improvement. If you can focus on self-improvement, our team can get better,” Purcell said. “When your team gets better in the SEC, you’re ready for March Madness and you’re ready to make a run. Everybody talks about how we’ve got five out of six ranked teams out of the gate, who cares? The most important game is the next one.”

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