STARKVILLE — The work started at 6:36 p.m. Monday.
Within minutes of learning the second-seeded Mississippi State women’s basketball team would play 15th-seeded Troy at 1:30 p.m. Friday (ESPN2) in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Skylar Collins, the squad’s director of scouting and video coordinator, was compiling clips and video of the Trojans as well as seventh-seeded DePaul and 10th-seeded Northern Iowa, the other teams slated to come to Starkville.
It hadn’t been decided at that point, approximately 25 minutes after the conclusion of the NCAA tournament selection show on ESPN, which coach was going to scout which team, but MSU associate head coach Johnnie Harris already knew it was going to be a long night.
“One of us will take each of the three teams,” said Harris, who worked with Vic Schaefer for five seasons at Texas A&M and is in her fifth season with Schaefer in Starkville. “We all help each other out in scouting.”
Schaefer’s “A-Team” of Harris, Carly Thibault, and Dionnah Jackson-Durrett faced the challenge of taking the clips compiled by Collins and delivering scouting reports of each team in time for MSU’s practice today. Harris said Collins’ job was to pull video from Troy’s games this season from Synergy Sports Technology, which is used by a coaches to evaluate players, to create scouting reports, and to build game plans and win championships. According to its website, Synergy’s technology captures every play, every player move, and every defensive technique and then breaks those plays down, sorts them, pairs them with advanced analytics, and stores them in a database system that allows coaches to use them whenever they want.
Harris said Synergy is one of two paid systems MSU uses to compile its scouting report for Troy (22-10), which beat Arkansas State, Texas Arlington, and Louisiana-Lafayette to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament title.
“The coach who is responsible for Troy probably will work until midnight or 1 or 2 a.m. so we’ll be ready for practice tomorrow,” Harris said.
That practice would serve as the official start to MSU’s March Madness, a journey that would commence at the Hump for the second-straight year. MSU earned its highest seed in NCAA tournament history thanks to a record-setting 29-4 season that included a program-best 13-3 mark in the Southeastern Conference, a second-place finish in the SEC, and a runner-up finish to regular-season champion South Carolina in the championship game of the SEC tournament.
DePaul (26-7), the Big East Conference regular-season champion and tournament runner-up, and Northern Iowa (24-11), the runner-up in the Missouri Valley Conference, will meet at 11 a.m. Friday. ESPN2 will broadcast that game live. The winners of both first-round games will play Sunday at a time to be determined. The winner of that game will advance to the Sweet 16 in Oklahoma City. Baylor is the No. 1 seed in the Oklahoma City Regional.
Last season, MSU earned a chance to play host to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed because No. 4 seed Michigan State had a conflict with its home venue. MSU defeated Chattanooga and Michigan State to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in program history.
Harris hopes MSU will be able to make a similar run this season, but she knew she and the rest of MSU’s staff faced a lot of work in the next couple of days to prepare the players to make that run.
“We grind,” Harris said. “We will be up working until 1 or 2 in the morning every night until we’re done. It is part of the job. We’re used to it.
“I don’t know anything about Troy yet, but we’re about to learn. We’re about to meet right now. By morning, we’ll know almost everything about them.”
NOTE: At 11:30 a.m. today, fans can talk to Schaefer, MSU players, and staff at a special NCAA tournament Hail State Hoops luncheon at Mize Pavilion. Doors open at 11:15 a.m. The cost is $12. … On Wednesday, fans can join the Schaefer from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday at The Veranda for a special edition of DawgTalk. Fans are encouraged to participate and ask questions in person at The Veranda, or call the show at 866-998-4893. … Tickets for the NCAA First and Second Rounds can be ordered online at www.hailstate.com/tickets, with fans having the option to pick seats and print tickets at home. Fans also can order tickets by calling the MSU ticket office at 1-888-GO-DAWGS. All-session tickets cost $40 for adults and $18 for both youth age 17 and under and MSU students. Individual game tickets go on sale the morning before the first game.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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