Victoria Vivians no longer is a freshman.
The end of classes for the 2014-15 school year means a player who had one of the biggest impacts on her women’s basketball team this past season is a sophomore. Judging from the Vivians’ comments Tuesday, she is ready to take on an even bigger leadership role as she prepares for the 2015-16 season.
The first step in that preparation will come later this week, when Vivians participates in the USA Basketball Women’s Pan American Games and World University Team Trials. The trials will begin Thursday and run through Sunday at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Coaches will select 12-player rosters for the Pan American Games, which will be July 16-20 in Toronto, Canada, and the World University Games, which will be July 4-13 in Gwangju, South Korea. The finalists for each team will be announced the morning of May 17.
“There is no pressure at all,” said Vivians, who was Mississippi State’s leading scorer this past season (14.9 points per game). That total was the third-highest average in the SEC regardless of class, and first among league rookies. “I am just trying to grow from every chance I get to do anything. I want to come back and show my teammates what I have learned and try to help the team out better than I did last year.”
Iowa’s Lisa Bluder will lead the Pan Am team, while Northwestern coach Joe McKeown will coach the World University Games team.
Vivians, a 6-foot-1 forward from Carthage, was one of 54 players invited to attend the team trials. She received an invitation after she earned The Associated Press All-America honorable mention and second-team All-Southeastern Conference honors after leading MSU (27-7) to school records for overall and SEC victories (11). The Bulldogs advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in their first appearance in the event since 2009-10.
Vivians also won the Gillom Trophy, which is awarded to the best women’s basketball player in the state of Mississippi.
Vivians averaged 17.5 ppg. against ranked opponents. She paced the team in scoring 18 times and scored in double figures 26 times. One of those efforts was a MSU freshman record 39-point showing against Kentucky, which tied for the highest single-game output by a freshman this season.
“I am honored because not many people get to do this,” Vivians said. “This wouldn’t be possible without my teammates or the coaches, so I am just going to represent them, Mississippi State, and my country.”
Vivians said she has been working to improve her game, particularly her ballhandling and defense. She said she feels she can have an even bigger impact if she can get better in those areas.
With the loss of seniors Martha Alwal, Savannah Carter, Kendra Grant, and Jerica James, Vivians expects she will be counted on more to help lead and guide her teammates. MSU coach Vic Schaefer said several times during the past season that it is natural for a team’s best player to be one of its biggest leaders. That message has been conveyed to Vivians, who sounded like she is ready to embrace even more responsibility.
“I think I could have gotten a lot done if my ballhandling was better and I wouldn’t be one-dimensional, I guess,” Vivians said. “My ballhandling would have helped me a lot. I would have got farther than what I did.”
Vivians shot 36.8 percent from the field as a freshman. More than 45 percent of her shots came from 3-point range, where she shot 32.7 percent. Her 465 field goal attempts were more than double everyone on the team except Breanna Richardson (247).
As a team, MSU shot 39.8 percent, which was ninth in the SEC. Vivians also shot 74.6 percent from the free-throw line. She was second on the team to freshman point guard Morgan William in free throws attempted (126).
Vivians acknowledged she tried to take the ball to the basket more around the middle of the season. She said it was a matter of being “more aggressive” and not settling for perimeter shots. She hopes to take that attitude to Colorado this week and showcase all of her game.
As for next season, Vivians believes all of her teammates have the ability to be leaders. Still, she said the Bulldogs need one leader who can “get on your butt if you mess up and still love you at the same time.” She said she has played that role on past teams, but she didn’t do it much when she played at Scott Central High School. With more skilled players surrounding her at MSU, Vivians is confident she will be able to handle that responsibility.
“At Scott Central, I was the oldest and they were little kids, so, you know, their feelings would get hurt,” Vivians said. “I think coming in to college you have more mature people (who) understand why you’re doing the things you do. I think that will be a better transition than high school.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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