Mississippi State basketball saw it's season come to an end a week ago with a 69-51 loss to the Michigan State Spartans in the First Round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Now that the Bulldogs have officially transitioned into offseason mode, we're beginning to see some of the roster turnover as State looks ahead to the next season.
On Wednesday, it was announced that junior guard Trey Fort was entering the transfer portal after one season at Mississippi State.
Mississippi State junior Trey Fort has entered the transfer portal @On3sports has learned
— Jamie Shaw (@JamieShaw5) March 27, 2024
The 6-4 guard averaged 5.0 points this season with seven starts.
He is originally from Jackson, Mississippi and started his career at UT-Martin @TreyFort3 https://t.co/kIUbwmzAG0 pic.twitter.com/DgTz6F1xF4
Fort started the first seven games of the season for the Bulldogs, opening the year with a breakout performance against Arizona State in the Barstool Sports Invitational in which he scored 21 points on 6-12 shooting with five made threes.
He followed up that performance with quality starts against UT Martin North Alabama before his production faded, and he moved to the bench. He would later score 13 off the bench at Kentucky, one of the lone positives for Mississippi State in that game.
A thumb injury sidelined Fort in early February, and he would only appear in three more games for the Bulldogs with minimal playing time the remainder of the year, ultimately ending his time at State with a brief check-in against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament. For the year, he averaged five PPG for MSU.
Fort came to Mississippi State by way of Howard College, where he scored 25 PPG and was named 2nd-Team NJCAA All American. The Jackson native began his career at UT Martin before spending a season at Copiah-Lincoln Community College and eventually transferring to Howard College.
It's unfortunate to see Trey Fort's MSU career be short-lived. He was brought in to add a perimeter scoring option to the Bulldogs, and in the season-opener, it looked like that's exactly what he would be. But as experienced some struggles, freshman Josh Hubbard began to flourish, making minutes harder to come by for Fort.
And his eventual injury ended his chances at making an impact down the stretch for Mississippi State. Still, Fort has plenty of potential, and at his best, he can become a legitimate scoring threat for whichever program he ends up transferring to.
The transfer portal is already heating up in college basketball, and Mississippi State will be heavily involved. Chris Jans and his staff are expected to be aggressive in pursuing transfers given the production being lost from this season. And as we see with Trey Fort, there will be some current Bulldogs who go elsewhere also.