STARKVILLE — Vic Schaefer’s patience is being tested.
A noted perfectionist on and off the court, the 2020 Mississippi State women’s basketball team has forced Schaefer — who’s in the midst of his eighth year in Starkville — to be more patient with the inconsistencies that come with a young squad.
“Look, I learn something new about this team just about every day,” he said Friday. “I think what we’ve seen is how well they can play and we’ve also seen the flip side of how they’ve struggled at times. And so my job is to get the to get that consistency from home every day in practice, and every night and again, when the lights come on.”
While Schaefer continues to cope with the ebbs and flows of his team, the past two weeks have proven a microcosm of how up and down this year’s squad can be.
In last week’s 81-79 loss to No. 1 South Carolina, the Bulldogs looked the part of a top-10 team nationally.
While Gamecocks freshman center Aliyah Boston controlled the interior, it was crafty playmaking from freshmen Aliyah Matharu, Rickea Jackson and JaMya Mingo-Young — who combined for 40 points on the night — that kept MSU within striking distance.
Matharu and Jackson proved similarly dynamic in wins over Vanderbilt and Auburn — scoring 10 and 22 points respectively in either game — as the Bulldogs were forced into tighter contests than initial projections forecasted.
“I’m young, and I’m learning,” Matharu said following MSU’s 82-46 win over UT-Martin Nov. 11. “But my teammates don’t get on me when I mess up, and I feel like that’s really helping me. When I make a mistake they take their time with me, they’re patient, they tell me what I’m supposed to do, and they guide me.”
And while the freshmen contingent has proved vital of late, the Bulldogs’ youth has shown in victories over SEC-bottom dwellers.
In Thursday’s win over an Auburn squad that sits 1-7 in conference play, MSU totaled 18 turnovers — 11 of which came in the first half. Of those, sophomore stalwart guard Myah Taylor accounted for four of them, while Mingo-Young notched two and a plus-minus rating of -4 in 17 minutes played.
In Taylor’s case, the game proved as a learning experience of sorts. A redshirt sophomore, the Olive Branch native has been forced into a larger role this year following the departure of starting point guard Jazzmun Holmes. With that, Taylor’s minutes per game have jumped from 11.2 to 25.1 — albeit to mixed results. Entering Monday’s game against Georgia, she’s averaging 2.42 assists for every turnover — down from Holmes’ 4.81:1 turnover/assist ratio.
“It’s definitely something that’s eye opening for me,” Taylor said of her lowly performance Thursday. “It’s something that I’m going to have to go to work on and take responsibility for that and how we started and the turnovers and things like that. I just have to be better.”
Sophomore center Jessika Carter has also had her own share of struggles in staying on the court this season. Including Thursday’s win over Auburn, Carter has now received two fouls before halftime in three of MSU’s past four games — forcing limited backup options Promise Taylor and Yemiyah Morris into more minutes than Schaefer would prefer.
“You know we need a need to give (Jessika) some rest and obviously Jess has shown she can be in foul trouble a little bit. And, and so it helps to have a big down there that can give you some mettle,” he said Friday.
Inconsistencies aside, the Bulldogs still sit at 19-3 and 7-1 in SEC play — just one game behind conference leader South Carolina. And while the Gamecocks may have the edge in the race for the regular season SEC title, there’s no denying how this talented Bulldog squad can contend when hitting on all cylinders.
“I said it yesterday in a staff meeting, ‘Hey, I really do know how to fix it.'” Schaefer said. “I’ve seen this before. I know how to deal with it. I know how to fix it and I’ll fix it. If you’re trying to teach and mold and mentor and get people’s attention — I know how to do all that — and that’s what being a coach is. Every team is different, every year is different. This (team) just happens to be a little bit more different than what we’ve had in the last few.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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