It’s been a busy few days for Mississippi State women’s basketball. They kicked things off on Thursday by adding All-Big East DePaul transfer Darrione Rogers, and they followed minutes later by inking head coach Sam Purcell to a four-year extension. On Saturday, they capped off the incredible week by picking up former Arkansas forward Erynn Barnum out of the transfer portal.
Barnum spent five seasons with the Razorbacks and garnered interest from programs like Ole Miss and Auburn when she entered the transfer portal earlier this offseason.
The 6’2” forward redshirted her initial season at Arkansas, and steadily improved her numbers over the last four seasons. As a freshman, she played 11 minutes per game and scored 5.0 points while grabbing 4.0 rebounds. Her sophomore year she averaged 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds and followed with 7.6 points and 4.8 rebounds as a junior.
As a senior, the Little Rock native established herself as one of the top players in the SEC and was named a Second Team All-SEC performer. Barnum led the Razorbacks in scoring with 15.0 points per game and was second on the team with 6.5 rebounds. She shot 55.6% from the field on 10.0 attempts per game and shot 29.5% from three and 64.4% from the free throw line. Barnum also made her presence felt defensively with 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.
Barnum is ranked by ESPN as the #21 overall player in the transfer portal. She joins Seton Hall point guard Lauren Park-Lane, the #16 overall transfer, and Rogers, the #18 transfer in Mississippi State’s transfer portal class. Mississippi State is the only team who has picked up three of the top 30.
Purcell brings in a recruiting class featuring three top 100 prospects according to ESPNW in Mjracle Sheppard, Jasmine Brown, and Quanirah Cherry-Montague, as well as Juco All-American Meloney Thames.
Mississippi State returns its two leading scorers in All-SEC center Jessika Carter (14.8 ppg) and junior wing JerKaila Jordan (11.9 ppg). Freshman forward Debreasha Powe is expected to be a big piece after starting 32 games and averaging 8.2 points while the Bulldogs also return forwards Ramani Parker and Nyayongah Gony.
