STARKVILLE — Vic Schaefer has plans for 7 tonight.
The Mississippi State women’s basketball coach won’t be preparing a pre-game speech for his team. Instead, he will be on hand to watch senior Breanna Richardson take part in graduation ceremonies at Humphrey Coliseum.
“Three-and-a-half years is pretty quick,” Schaefer said of Richardson. “It shows tremendous discipline and work ethic. She is going to do it with a 3.5 GPA (grade-point average). That is just outstanding. I couldn’t be more proud of her. I am not going to miss it.”
The graduation ceremony will be a warmup for Schaefer and Richardson prior to No. 5 MSU’s game against Southern Mississippi (7-1) at 2 p.m. Saturday in Hattiesburg. The game is the latest test for the Bulldogs (8-0), who climbed to program-highs in The Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls earlier this week.
The game will be MSU’s eighth game on the road or at a neutral site. MSU will play Tuesday at Arkansas-Little Rock before traveling to Los Angeles to take part in the Women of Troy Classic.
For Richardson, who is majoring in kinesiology with a concentration in clinical exercise physiology, the game against Southern Miss will be a chance to continue what has been a solid final season. The 6-foot-1 forward from Conyers, Georgia, is averaging 6.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game in 18.9 minutes. Like the majority of her career, she is splitting time with senior Ketara Chapel at the forward position.
Schaefer said it is extremely satisfying that all of his seniors — Richardson, Chapel, Dominique Dillingham, and Chinwe Okorie — are going to graduate in four years and are going to have GPAs of 3.0 or higher. He said those kids are the ones who believed he and his coaching staff were going to transform the program.
Schaefer praised Richardson’s parents, Maurice Richardson and Lisa Brown, for setting an example Breanna has followed on the court and in the classroom.
“Bre comes from a tremendous background,” Schaefer said. “She went to a magnet school in high school. Her formative years with her family really has transferred here and that discipline and understanding that grades are important. I have never had to get on her about her academics.
Richardson was a member of the Southeastern Conference’s All-Freshman Team in 2014. She also was named to the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll. She also was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll in 2015, 2016.
Last season, she played in 34 of the team’s 36 games and averaged 5.6 points per game.
Richardson said her time at MSU has gone by very quickly. She praised Schaefer for the emphasis he puts on education. Richardson said she has made only one C in her time at MSU.
“My mom always told me education first,” Richardson said. “It is really just me understanding how to balance everything. I can’t ever let my grades slip, so dealing with coach Schaefer, he stays on us to make sure our grades are good. For the most part, education is kind of easy.”
n In related news, Victoria Vivians received the nod for another national honor as she was tabbed to the preseason watch list for the prestigious John R. Wooden Award.
The Carthage native was named to the top 30 watch list for the second-straight year. The list for the award, which recognizes the top player in women’s college basketball, was selected by a preseason poll of national women’s college basketball media members.
She also has been named to the Wade and Naismith preseason watch lists. Teammate Morgan William joined her on the Naismith list.
Vivians leads the team in scoring this season 14.6 (points per game). She reached double figures for the sixth time on the year last Saturday, notching 16 points as Vic Schaefer’s Bulldogs improved to 8-0 with an 85-81 overtime win at Iowa State in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
The junior guard earned MVP honors of both the Maine Tipoff Tournament and Rainbow Wahine Showdown. In the season-opening tournament she scored 26 against host Maine, while she opened the event in Hawaii with 17 points against previously-unbeaten Oregon.
The MVP performance in Honolulu followed a 19-point showing in the Bulldogs’ lone home game of the year, a win against then-No. 8 Texas.
The SEC’s returning leading scorer from last season, Vivians is currently top 16 in the league in scoring this season and 13th in field goal percentage at 42.2 percent.
Vivians continues to climb the Bulldogs’ career scoring list, rating 11th with 1,238 points. That total is fifth among active SEC players, first by a junior, and third among her class in the NCAA Division I ranks.
Her 15.9 career scoring average rates 15th in the nation and seventh among juniors. Among current league players she is seventh in career steals (120), fifth in field goals (450) and second in 3-pointers (161).
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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