STARKVILLE — Breaking records has become the norm in the Troy University women’s basketball program.
The Trojans have won 20 or more games in three-consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. They also have led the Sun Belt Conference in scoring each of the last five seasons.
On March 12, Troy defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 78-64 in the championship game of the Sun Belt Conference tournament to earn its second-straight appearance in the NCAA tournament, and third overall.
But setting records hasn’t diminished the special feeling Troy coach Chanda Rigby has associated with each accomplishment. In fact, the school’s fifth-year head coach has used her program’s success to motivate her players to break even more records and to create even more special occasions.
“Since I have been at Troy, I have pushed breaking records and doing things special, and doing things that have never been done before,” Rigby said. “We celebrate every first that we have in the system. When we had our first 20-win season (in 2014-15), we celebrated that. We celebrate every victory.”
Fifteenth-seeded Troy (22-10) will get a chance to do something really special at 1:30 p.m. Friday (ESPN2) when it takes on second-seeded Mississippi State (29-4) at Humphrey Coliseum.
The winner of that game will play the winner of the game between seventh-seeded DePaul (26-7) and 10th-seeded Northern Iowa (24-8) on Sunday at a time to be determined. The winner of that game will advance to the Sweet 16 of the Oklahoma City Regional.
Rigby, who was head girls basketball coach at Northwest Rankin in Brandon and women’s basketball coach at Holmes Community College in Goodman, has engineered a turnaround at Troy that is similar to the one Vic Schaefer has delivered at MSU. Troy went 2-26 the year prior to Rigby’s arrival. Since then, Troy has won seven, 12, 20, 20, and 22 games.
Senior guard Claresa Banks, who is from Jackson and attended Copiah-Lincoln C.C. in Wesson, credits Rigby and the rest of the coaching staff for providing the motivation to help the Trojans transform the program.
“It is not just coach Rigby. It is all of her assistant coaches (who get the most out of us),” Banks said. “Coach Rigby is the type of coach who will motivate you and who will be there for you whenever you need her. The assistant coaches push you and make you (realize) your fullest potential.”
Senior guard Jayla Chills, who went to school at Itawamba Agricultural High School and Itawamba C.C. in Fulton, is another player from the state of Mississippi on the roster.
Rigby said the Trojans’ goal is to take a shot every seven seconds and to get to 100 shots in a game. She said she used the same system in junior college and wondered if it would be successful at the Division I level.
But she said the team’s offense, which is eighth in the nation in scoring at 82.9 points per game, and its defense, which forces 21 turnovers per game, work hand in hand to wear opponents down. Troy has 10 players who average double-digit minutes. The Trojans also have played at least 12 players in every game.
“We almost don’t allow a superstar in our program,” Rigby said.
Rigby said the program’s ability to find players with heart has been a key reason why it has reversed its fortunes.
“We all believe 100 percent — my staff, myself, everybody around our program — we believe we have something really special in our system,” Rigby said. “It doesn’t work if you don’t have players with a lot of heart. It is not necessarily the system that makes it special, but it is a good system for players who have heart and who have that fight in them, like Claresa Banks and Caitlyn Ramirez.”
Ramirez, a 6-foot-2 senior forward from Shawnee, Oklahoma, transferred from Tyler Junior College. She leads the team in scoring (13.2 points per game) and rebounding (10.6). In addition to earning first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors, Ramirez earned Sun Belt Conference tournament MVP honors after averaging 15 points and 15.7 rebounds in three wins.
“Coach Rigby is all about running,” Ramirez said. “In the offseason, we’re not big fans of that because conditioning is very rough, but at the end of the day we’re thankful for our weight coach (Shannon Lemons) because she pushes us to be our absolute best. Because of her and the staff at Troy University, we have been able to outrun teams. (Coach Rigby) says we’re 15 strong. We can play all 15 people, and not very many teams are able to do that.”
Rigby knows the Trojans will face a daunting challenge against MSU on its home court. Last season, MSU drew a crowd of 5,115 for its victory against Chattanooga in the first round of the NCAA tournament. MSU Assistant Athletic Director/Media Relations Bill Martin said MSU has sold nearly 5,000 tickets for Friday’s game.
As far as Rigby is concerned, a bigger crowd makes the possibility of a victory by Troy even more special.
“Here we are at the NCAA tournament playing Mississippi State, who we have a lot of respect for,” Rigby said. “We have an opportunity to do something else special.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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