“No Offense to the ACC” — Sam Purcell Knows What is Ahead in SEC Play
Mississippi State Bulldogs Get Ready for SEC Slate
He may have said “no offense to the ACC,” but I am sure plenty will still take offense. Today, after the Mississippi State Bulldogs women’s basketball team rolled past the Samford Bulldogs 112-54, head coach Sam Purcell made an attention grabbing comment during his postgame press conference while talking about the level of competition ahead in SEC play.
“No offense to the ACC, but in the SEC there’s no Pitt’s, like we played earlier this year. There’s no Boston College’s. Those teams are struggling in that league. You play someone like that and you know you’re just going to show up and win,” said Purcell.
“I can’t emphasize enough the support we’re going to need from our fans because they can see the hard work that my young ladies are doing to create an atmosphere to give us a homecourt advantage against a great Auburn team..”
While the comment definitely catches your attention, I definitely think Purcell is just passionate and fired up about his team and the SEC. Mississippi State was picked to finish 10th by the media in the preseason SEC poll, and he clearly believes they are better than that.
Right now the Bulldogs are 13-1, with their only loss coming at Texas Tech on November 20 by a score of 69-62. Since then, Mississippi State has rolled through the rest of the schedule and will open SEC play on January 1 when they host the Auburn Tigers.
The road ahead is a gauntlet. After Auburn, the Bulldogs will face five currently ranked teams in a row: No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 23 Tennessee, No. 15 Ole Miss, No. 12 Vanderbilt, and No. 11 Kentucky. They will very quickly find out where they stand and whether that preseason 10th-place projection has any truth to it.
“Again, I can’t talk enough about this league. If you look at Bracketology and the tournament started today, I think you’ve got five teams that are going to host if it started today. You’re looking at potential three teams that could be in the Final Four. Several in the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and then a Bulldog team, besides Mike Neighbors, that said weren’t going to be no good,” said Purcell.
“A team that said, you know what, you got the least amount of return experience, and I think you’re watching a team come together like no other over the last four weeks since we had that serious December 1st practice.”
Favour Nwaedozi leads the Bulldogs, averaging a double-double with 14.6 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. Madison Francis adds 13.1 points per game, followed by Destiney McPhaul at 12.1.
Purcell has made it clear he believes deeply in this team as a coach should, even calling them the best character group he has had in Starkville.
“Yeah, I couldn’t be more proud. I’ve got, from top to bottom, probably the best character group I’ve ever had. I think it started with a post we shared about the fall GPA, and I made a tweet about it before Christmas. What you do off the court and how you live your life… it’s funny how winning follows you on the court.”
Stay tuned to see if the winning continues to follow the Mississippi State Bulldogs Women’s Basketball team, as they get into tough conference play.
Stay tuned to Mays Sports Media for continued coverage of women’s basketball.
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