Just A Bulldog Minute: How Men's Basketball Transfers Have Been Playing

A deeper scoop on what's up with the Bulldog newcomers this season and their contributions to the season.

The Mississippi State basketball team is finishing up the last few games of the regular season and are getting ready to find out where it stands heading into tournament time.

The team has altogether returned 80.9 percent of points, 72.4 percent of rebounds, 83.8 percent of assists, 83.6 percent of its steals and 75.2 percent of its blocks from last season.

These stats put the team among the nation's leaders in returning these points and this season the Bulldogs have help from three newcomers.

Among this group of juniors from the transfer portal and community college ranks is Jimmy Bell Jr., a transfer from West Virginia, Trey Fort from Howard College, and Jaquan Scott from Salt Lake Community College.

Bell Jr. has seen over 50 game starts during his career in the last two seasons and in six of his thirteen games as a Bulldog, Bell Jr. scored 10-plus points.

As a former key member of West Virginia’s 2022-23 NCAA Tournament squad, Mississippi State was lucky to get this forward.

Fort was an All-America Second-Team honoree at Howard College last season and one of the nation’s top JuCo recruits.

This season, Fort found his highlights as a Bulldog putting up 21 points against Arizona State and 13 points against Kentucky before having to take a five-game break due to a hand injury before returning to take on the MSU rival Ole Miss.

Jaquan Scott is a native of Dallas, Texas who spent the 2021-22 and 2022-23 season at Salt Lake Community College in Utah and came to Mississippi State his junior year.

Last season, Scott improved his average to 16.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, one assist and a steal per game. Scott is still working hard to see what his career holds in Starkville.

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