STARKVILLE — Vic Schaefer assembled the Mississippi State women’s basketball team’s 2016-17 schedule knowing full well his team was going to learn how to handle being the hunted.
Trips to Maine and Hawaii as well as a game against Tulane in Biloxi and a lone home game against then-No. 8 Texas have provided plenty of evidence No. 6 MSU has accepted the growing bull’s eye on its back and is prepared to travel to any destination to prove it is worthy.
Schaefer knows from experience that his team’s next test — a game against Iowa State at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in Ames, Iowa — likely will be one of the toughest in a 14-game non-conference schedule.
“We have a huge challenge in front of us going to Ames, Iowa, and what I expect to be a packed Hilton Coliseum,” Schaefer said. “They do a tremendous job supporting women’s basketball. Coach Fennelly has been doing it a long, long time. He has a great staff, and he is a tremendous Xs and Os coach. This is an opportunity for us in the SEC to go on the road to play a very good Big 12 opponent. It will be a tremendous challenge for our kids to go into that environment. I think our kids will enjoy going in their playing in front of those fans.”
Schaefer experienced how difficult it is to win at Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum when he was an associate head coach at Big 12 Conference rival Texas A&M. While he said it is a “special” time in Starkville and that the Bulldogs have passed a few tests, he said it is still early in the season. He knows the Cyclones would like nothing better than to end the Bulldogs’ undefeated run to start the season.
MSU goes to Iowa State (5-0) as the highest-ranked team to enter Hilton Coliseum since 1990, when the Iowa State men’s basketball team took on No. 6 Indiana. On the women’s side, Iowa State faced No. 5 Iowa in 1989.
If that kind of hype didn’t stir the Iowa State fans, they are bound to be whipped into a frenzy to help coach Fennelly’s squad protect a winning streak that has seen it win its last 96 regular-season games against non-conference foes. Iowa State hasn’t lost a non-conference game since 2003, which is 12-straight years of unblemished home non-conference records.
This season, Iowa State has won all five of its games at home and averaged more than 8,000 per game. The Cyclones have enjoyed a top-10 attendance ranking for the last 17 years. Iowa State also has been in the top-five for the nine-straight seasons.
MSU will combat an opponent that is averaging 81.4 points and 8.4 3-pointers per game with a defense that is holding opponents to 53.9 points and 40.6 percent shooting from the field. The Bulldogs are allowing opponents to shoot 18 of 94 (19.1 percent) from 3-point range.
On the other end of the floor, MSU is shooting 47.6 percent from the field, which is its best mark through the first seven games in Schaefer’s five seasons at the school. The Bulldogs are doing it with balance — six players are averaging 7.1 points per game or more. They also are doing it by shooting a lower number of shots from 3-point range. MSU is shooting 22.4 percent of its shots from beyond the arc. It’s percentage — 37.4 — is a significant increase from last season (31.5) at this point.
Schaefer credits the development of senior center Chinwe Okorie, who was named to the all-tournament team in Hawaii, and sophomore Teaira McCowan for the team’s improved field goal shooting. Okorie is shooting 54.2 percent from the field, while McCowan is shooting 50 percent.
Schaefer also said his team’s defense has enabled it to force turnovers and get out and create easy baskets. MSU is forcing a little more than 22 turnovers a game and has 71 steals.
“If you can get three layups per game out of your press or in transition, that affects your shooting percentage 5 percent,” Schaefer said. “I think the fact we’re getting some transition of the press and our inside players are finishing inside, that is very big. You’re not living and dying by the jumper. That being said, I think our skill sets is better and we have better players. At the end of the day, good players make good coaches.”
n In related news, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) named MSU junior Victoria Vivians to the Wade Trophy Watch List on Thursday. It is the second-straight year Vivians has been named to the 25-player list for an award that is given to the top player in NCAA Division I.
Vivians leads MSU in scoring (14.4 points per game), and has scored in double figures in five games, including a season-high 26 in the first half of MSU’s Maine Tipoff Tournament championship win against the host Black Bears.
She earned MVP honors of that tournament and last weekend at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Hawaii, where she tallied 17 points in a win against previously undefeated Oregon.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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