Sam Purcell has a late Christmas present coming his way next week.
The Mississippi State coach and his staff have landed a mid-year addition to the 2025-26 roster as France hooper Melissa Guillet has signed with the Bulldogs. Guillet has been taking in her first visit to Starkville over the last few days, and is expected to be enrolled in classes for the spring semester.
“Adding Melissa this late in the year is an awesome opportunity,” Purcell said in a release. “She has been playing the game at the highest level, and her international experience will be huge for us as she joins the program and helps us chase championships.”
Guillet comes to State after playing this past year with La Tronche in France. She left her team midseason to come play SEC basketball at 19 years old. Guillet was averaging 17 minutes per game with 7.0 points and 2.6 rebounds.
Purcell and assistant Fred Castro first found Guillet on the international stage during the summer. Guillet played for Team France on the FIBA circuit including the U16 FIBA Women’s European Championship and the U18 Women’s EuroBasket last year.
A trend of international players coming to the US to play college basketball continues with both Purcell and Chris Jans taking part in the last couple of seasons. Purcell and his staff found Madina Okot from Kenya last season and turned her into one of the most dominant post players in the SEC before she transferred to South Carolina. This past offseason, State brought in Nigerian post player Favour Nwaedozi who had been playing college basketball in Japan.
Nwaedozi is currently leading the Bulldogs with 14.6 points and 10.7 rebounds per contest and her rebounding is good for third in the SEC. Nwaedozi has seven double-doubles through the first 14 games and just recently notched a career-high 30 points on Sunday afternoon against Samford with 10 rebounds.
On the men’s side, Jans is getting some good production from Sergej Macura who came over from Slovenia. Macura averages 16.9 minutes per game with 5.0 points and 5.0 rebounds but his production is climbing.
There is still a legal hoop to jump through for Guillet as she works through her VISA, a very similar situation that Okot encountered last year before being cleared. Guillet would also have to get acquainted to her teammates and coaches and will have to do it within the toughest part of the schedule in SEC play. She has three years of eligibility remaining with the addition of a redshirt year.
The addition of Guillet brings State’s roster to 13 players.