Josh Hubbard embracing his roots to fuel Mississippi State’s rise

Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard didn’t have to go far to find his college basketball home–or stardom.

The Madison, Mississippi, native is just a two-hour drive from his hometown–and the place he became a Mississippi high school basketball legend–he hasn’t forgotten about it, either.

Hubbard loves Mississippi. It loves him back, too.

“He’s the face of our program right now,” Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans said at SEC Media Days in October of Hubbard, who is averaging 17.5 points per game for No. 17 Mississippi State. “Josh has been kind of preparing for that stage for his whole life.”

The Mississippi native has followed up a stellar freshman season in which he was one of just three freshmen, the other two being NBA draft picks, named to an All-SEC team by leading a revamped, perimeter-oriented Mississippi State team to a 12-1 start and an AP Top 25 ranking.

Bigger than all, he’s given Jans’ team a dynamic element. He’s also made it one of the SEC’s most entertaining teams.

“[He’s] just a spark offensively,” Mississippi State forward Cameron Matthews said of Hubbard. “Just how explosive he is, I think that’s what separates him.”

Even before Hubbard’s freshman season in which he led Mississippi State with 17.1 points per game and even surprised Jans with his production, he had experience being the face of a program and giving it an element that it’s yet to have.

Hubbard often makes the two-hour drive back home to Madison-Ridgeland Academy and takes it all in as he walks across the floor of Richard Duease court, appropriately named for his legendary high school coach. The current Mississippi State guard has special memories in that gym, where he scored a Mississippi state record 4,367 points and put together a senior season in which he was named Mississippi’s boys basketball player of the year.

The Mississippi State guard is set on making more memories in that gym, even if they look different. They’ll no longer come from the points he scores or the wins he contributes to. Now it’s about how he can influence people who are in the shoes he wore a few years ago as a Mississippi native looking to make it on the big stage.

“I try my best to give back to Mississippi kids who have the inspiration to do what I’m doing,” Hubbard told Southeastern 16 at SEC Media Day. “College players always gave back to me and NBA players from the state gave back to me and so I’m just trying to keep that trend moving.”

Hubbard kept the trend alive this summer as he returned to his old stomping grounds for free training sessions with local high schoolers and for an event heralded as the Josh Hubbard Showcase that allowed local high school prospects to get a glimpse of Hubbard’s new world that allowed him to become an All-SEC player as a freshman.

The two-day camp ended with a showcase game that awarded 1,000 dollars in scholarships to each player on the winning team. The state has taken notice of Hubbard’s influence within it, which means something to he and his family.

“We’re Mississippi people, wholeheartedly, and everything that we touch is Mississippi,” Hubbard’s dad, Jason, said. “We wanna put our state on the map.”

Hubbard contributed to that cause by giving Mississippi State its second NCAA Tournament berth in a row in 2023-24 behind some exotic shotmaking and quickness that is nearly unparalleled in the country’s best league.

He’s continued to do that in his second season as he’d led the Tolu Smith-less Bulldogs to a fast start and two ranked wins after they were picked 10th in the SEC preseason poll. Hubbard knows there’s a sect that believes his group will regress back toward that record and that his lack of size will eventually show itself.

That’s nothing new for him, though.

“My dad kinda instilled that in me, to prove the doubters wrong,” Hubbard said. “It wasn’t easy so he kinda motivated me to play as an undersized guard, and that my size didn’t matter. Only the heart mattered.”

Hubbard’s dad was never intimidated by his son being the smallest on the floor at times. He’s known that Hubbard can hold his own.

That’s a realization that felt possible to Hubbard’s dad while paying attention to his son’s coordination as a three-year old. It became more and more apparent to him as Hubbard was pulled up to Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s varsity team as an eighth grader.

“I knew he was really good,” Hubbard’s dad said of his son. “Even before he got to college, I said ‘you’re good enough to be a point guard in college. Wherever you decide to go, you’re good enough to start.’”

For a while, it looked as if Hubbard, who initially committed to Ole Miss under Kermit Davis, would test that theory as a Rebel. Hubbard’s plans changed as he called his dad crying at the news of Davis’ firing in the second semester of his senior season, though.

The then 16-year-old Hubbard “broke down” at the news as he wondered what his next step was, but quickly found it as he re-opened his recruitment. Perhaps the current Mississippi guard would’ve had a more difficult time without an awakening that came seven years before.

At that point, Hubbard was nine years old and didn’t know if he’d make it.

The Madisonville, Mississippi, native woke up the night after playing in a youth football game and didn’t feel right. That was apparent to Hubbard’s mother who saw his red eyes and a fever over 100 degrees. Hubbard’s doctor Yolanda Wilson saw him and immediately recommended an emergency room visit for the then nine-year-old.

Hubbard was transported there and stayed at Batson’s children’s hospital for 19 days, with many of them remaining answerless and full of worry.

“From the first day, probably to the eighth or ninth, it was uncertain,” Hubbard’s dad said. “We had 11 doctors in the room who couldn’t give us the answer why his fever wouldn’t break. He had sores all over his body and his mouth. He wouldn’t eat and lost probably 10 pounds.”

Hubbard’s family of seven felt helpless in that period. They would continue to until Hubbard was diagnosed towards the end of his hospital stay with Kawasaki disease, which is “a rare, serious illness that causes inflammation of blood vessels and can damage the heart.”

The then nine-year-old left with his life and a new perspective, though.

“I believe God was dealing with him in the bed,” Hubbard’s dad said. “A lot of things didn’t bother him. It didn’t overwhelm him. I knew it was a change in him after he came out.”

“His humility, everything changed about him when he came out.”

That humility has stuck with Hubbard through his rise as Mississippi’s record-breaking high school scorer and its star college guard.

As a result, his head coach has found that he can rely on him despite his age.

“He’s so consistent with his mental approach,” Jans said. “A lot of these kids now, they have a lot of temptations, a lot on their plate… but I know I know I don’t have to worry about him losing his focus, he’s always making the right decision off the court.”

“In 15-16 months I remember one bad day,” Jans added. “It was so bad that I brought him into my office the next day to make sure that everything was good in his life and he was fine because it was so off brand for him.”

What’s become on brand for Hubbard has been explosive scoring performances, although they’ll have to become more and more consistent as Mississippi State runs the gauntlet of SEC play without a post presence like it had in Smith last season.

The success of that approach rests on Hubbard’s shoulders, who has learned to embrace expectation through conversations with his cousin and former NBA star Dwayne Wade.

“This summer we talked about dealing with pressure,” Hubbard said of his talk with Wade. “He went through the same thing. To hear from him, it was unbelievable.”

Wade often reaches out to Hubbard with advice via Instagram, Hubbard’s family feels as if that connection to their distant relative will come to light more and more consistently as Hubbard keeps climbing the ladder.

They don’t want it to define him, though. The Hubbards want their son to make his own name.

Through a season and a half, he’s done that.

“A lot of times people would say, well, because he’s Dwyane Wade’s cousin. So and so but we wanted our own [name],” Hubbard’s dad said. “When Dwayne came into the picture it came at the perfect time because now Josh is known in the world of basketball and that association is helping.”

America is now starting to learn what kind of player Hubbard is and that there’s plenty more like him where he came from.

Mississippi State currently rosters five Mississippi natives. That’s particularly fulfilling for Hubbard’s dad, who is a native and stark advocate for the state.

“The talent we have in our own state is remarkable and we want to share that with the world,” Hubbard’s dad said. “I want the world to know Mississippi is really good.”

As Mississippi State sits within the top 20 of the AP Poll and approaches SEC play with eyes on a third-straight NCAA Tournament berth, it has an opportunity to prove Hubbard’s father right.

Hubbard will be the face of the push and will determine how far it will actually go.

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