STARKVILLE — The “uniform” is different for Sharon Fanning-Otis these days.
Hardly a game went by when Fanning-Otis patrolled the sidelines as coach of the Mississippi State women’s basketball team that she didn’t wear a Bulldog with one of her outfits. The hand-made piece of jewelry, given to her by members of her first MSU team in 1995, actually is a spoon doubled over on the back side and placed on a choker necklace with the Bulldog on the front.
Fanning-Otis wore the Bulldog the last time the MSU women’s basketball team made the NCAA tournament in 2010. MSU made history that season, beating Middle Tennessee State and Ohio State to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
At 1:30 p.m. today (ESPN2), Fanning-Otis — sans Bulldog — will be on hand to watch another piece of history, as No. 5 seed MSU takes on No. 12 seed Tulane in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Durham, North Carolina, on the campus of Duke University. The longtime coach also will be in a different role — fan, along with her husband, Larry — cheering on coach Vic Schaefer and the Bulldogs as they try to write another chapter in a record-breaking season.
For Fanning-Otis, who left with the team on a bus Wednesday from Starkville to fly to North Carolina, it is an opportunity to watch seniors Martha Alwal, Kendra Grant, and Jerica James, each of whom she recruited into the program as freshmen for the 2011-12 season.
“I have been watching these young ladies for the last three years,” Fanning-Otis said. “It was exciting to get ready. We went with them to Tennessee earlier in the year, so we have traveled with them already, and have been on the road to watch them on bus trips. This is just part of it.
“As this team progresses, we want to be there wherever they are playing,” she added. “We are fans now.”
Fanning-Otis coached 17 seasons at MSU, ending her tenure the program’s all-time wins leader (281). She led the Bulldogs to the postseason 11 times, including six NCAA tournament appearances.
In 2011-12, her 36th as a collegiate head coach, she became the 14th Division I coach to claim 600 wins. She retired at the end of that season with a record of 608-460 record.
On Wednesday, Fanning-Otis, Larry Otis, Jesse and Ann McDonald, Bobbi Higgins, Jerry Ishee, and Frank Jones left the MSU campus with the team. The ride to the airport gave fans and players and friends and coaches time to talk and get to know each other better.
Larry Otis said watching his wife transition from her role as coach to fan has been “extremely interesting.” He said when Fanning-Otis first started going to games she would sit there and analyze everything. He said she recently has started to feel more comfortable as a fan. In fact, he said she is more likely now to join in with the group of fans they sit with and say “airball” when an opponent is a little off target. He said she used to feel “guilty” about saying anything. These days, though, he said Fanning-Otis feels right at home joining in with the “Bulldog” and the “Maroon and White” cheers.
Larry Otis, who is a MSU fan and a graduate of the school, credits Schaefer for helping make it easy for them to be involved with the team. He said the communication between both sides has been great and has enabled them and thousands of supporters to get behind the team in its run to the NCAA tournament.
Record-breaking season
Fanning-Otis and her husband haven’t been the only ones caught up in the Bulldogs’ season.
A school-record crowd of 7,326 watched MSU beat Ole Miss 55-47 on March 1 at Humphrey Coliseum. That was the largest crowd to watch a women’s basketball game in the state of Mississippi.
For the season, MSU drew a program-record total of 67,598 fans for 18 dates. The average of 3,755 was fifth best in the SEC.
Schaefer has encouraged his players to get involved with fans after the game to build relationships. The team also has invited fans to attend luncheons with the players and coaches to help strengthen those bonds. He said Fanning-Otis’ presence has been a blessing.
“Coach has really made it easy,” Schaefer said. “She has been around a lot, and I appreciate that. I think that meant a lot to my seniors, especially those three holdovers. Her presence really allowed them to have a calming effect.
“Her and her husband have been just great. They don’t miss a game (and) they have traveled with us, so I have appreciated her. It is hard to follow a legend. That lady has won 600 and something games. She is pretty good.”
Fanning-Otis said she and her husband will continue to follow the program because Schaefer has a “special” bunch of young ladies with a lot of variety. Still, she said she always is a little happier for any senior class that works toward a goal and sees it work pay off. She said the blend of the “old” with former player Candace Foster, who is as a graduate assistant at MSU, and Alwal, Grant, and James and the “new” with freshman Victoria Vivians, who she watched for years at Mississippi State basketball camps, adds to the enthusiasm.
Now, though, she said she has an opportunity to get to know the fans in a different way than she did when she was the coach. For instance, Fanning-Otis said Thursday that she since wasn’t in a “get-in, get-out” way of operating she had time to do some research to find an oyster bar where she and her husband planned to go to eat later that night. If she was coaching, Fanning-Otis said she would be “on a different clock.” As it was, she said the only time she was concerned with was the time the bus was leaving today to go Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium for the game.
Fanning-Otis also wasn’t worried about what she was going to wear. If she was coaching, there would be no question the Bulldog would be with her and ready to go.
Now that she is settling in as a fan, khaki pants and Mississippi State pullovers work best. There are color variations, of course, and plenty of comfortable shoes that make it even easier for a former coach to get a little rowdy in her new uniform.
“This is a wonderful time of our lives,” Fanning-Otis said. “I am so excited for them and this opportunity. I was thinking earlier today, ‘What are the kids thinking getting ready?’ Because this has been something that has been anticipated as they have progressed and that the staff has preached that you’re going to have this opportunity.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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