STARKVILLE — Less than two weeks ago, Victoria Vivians was on the court in Las Vegas as her Seattle Storm were fighting for their WNBA playoff lives against the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
Now, the former Mississippi State star is back in a familiar place but in a less familiar role. Bulldogs head coach Sam Purcell hired Vivians to join his coaching staff over the summer, six years after she led MSU to back-to-back Final Fours and national championship game appearances.
“Before I even knew her, I used to watch her Mississippi State games when I was in middle school,” said Chandler Prater, a graduate transfer guard from Oklahoma State who spent her first four college seasons at Kansas. “It’s been really cool to meet her. I kind of fangirled at first, but hearing her talk about her experiences in the (WNBA) and also telling me directly, ‘This is what you’re going to need to work on,’ it’s really cool and pretty inspiring.”
A two-time AP All-American and four-time all-Southeastern Conference performer, Vivians averaged a shade under 20 points per game as a senior before being drafted eighth overall in 2018 by the Indiana Fever. She spent six seasons with Indiana, missing the 2019 campaign with a torn ACL, then signed with Seattle as a free agent this past March.
Vivians has not coached at the college level before, but she did work last offseason with the Rip City Remix, the NBA G League affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers. She has also helped coach high school prospect camps at MSU, including some that current Bulldog Debreasha Powe, one of just two Mississippians on the roster, attended.
“I feel like they listen more and they want to learn. It’s pretty fun to be able to give back the knowledge I have from playing at every level of basketball,” Vivians said. “I was that player, and if they’re striving to be that player, then they’re striving to be where I am today. They can keep looking at (me) as a goal. It can motivate them to become what I am and even better. I want them to keep looking at these pictures and these banners.”
Purcell said he tried to recruit Vivians to play at Louisville while he was an assistant coach there, but Vivians chose to stay in her home state and play for Vic Schaefer in Starkville. Schaefer, now the head coach at Texas, will return to Humphrey Coliseum with the Longhorns on Feb. 27.
“What great recruiting opportunities for me that when I call, they know that she’s on staff,” Purcell said. “When we talk about playing for championships and getting to deep Final Four runs, she did that. She’s also a great connector for life. She’s a great person.”
Three former head coaches also joining MSU’s staff
Purcell had to replace nearly his entire coaching staff in the spring as Michelle Clark-Heard left to become the head coach at Mercer, Corry Irvin took the head coaching job at Chicago State and Gabe Lazo, just four days after being promoted to associate head coach with the Bulldogs, left to join the staff at Tennessee.
MSU added plenty of experience to replace that trio, hiring former head coaches Anita Howard (Georgia Southern), Fred Castro (Eastern Michigan) and Samantha Williams (Eastern Kentucky). Williams was most recently an assistant at Tennessee under Kellie Harper, who was fired at the end of last season despite continuing the Volunteers’ streak of appearing in every NCAA Tournament.
“They understand what they can take off my plate. They understand how the small things are really big things,” Purcell said. “Not only do they bring a lot to our program, but I’m excited for what they’re going to bring to our community as well.”
Healthy Jordan preparing for final year in the maroon and white
The Bulldogs have just three returning players heading into the 2024-25 season, but despite all the turnover around her, Jerkaila Jordan’s decision to come back for her fifth year was an easy one.
MSU’s leading scorer last winter with 16.2 points per game, Jordan was battling an illness down the stretch, when the Bulldogs lost five straight games and missed out on a second straight NCAA Tournament. Jordan played at Tulane as a freshman but is entering her fourth season as a Bulldog, and was the only player to start every game last year even while sick. She closed out the year with a career-high 36 points in the WBIT quarterfinal loss to Penn State.
“It’s probably one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve ever been through,” Jordan said. “It was during SEC play, but not only that, it was during the end of the year when we were trying to compete for March Madness. Being sick and going out there and playing and nobody knows you’re sick, it wasn’t translating well in my game. It was very tough. Hopefully that doesn’t happen this year. I’ve been working on my health, but it was very challenging.”
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