STARKVILLE — Vic Schaefer has had plenty to complain about.
Throughout this season, Schaefer has maligned his youthful Mississippi State squad for its seeming immaturity to its need for any semblance of consistency. And while the Bulldogs have shown flashes of brilliance as recent as Monday’s near-miss against No. 1 South Carolina, it’s the arduous showing against Vanderbilt on Thursday that left the eighth-year head coach less than thrilled.
“We started off well and then had a horrible second quarter offensively, and we were just really challenged,” Schaefer said.
Entering Sunday’s contest with Ole Miss, consistency has been a persistent issue for MSU this season. In Thursday’s win over the Commodores, the Bulldogs received just 18 points on 9-of-22 shooting from senior guard Jordan Danberry and freshman forward Rickea Jackson, the team’s two leading scorers.
Instead, it was freshman Aliyah Matharu and sophomore Xaria Wiggins who anchored MSU down the stretch, scoring a combined 22 points as the Bulldogs outscored Vanderbilt 16-0 over the game’s final 6 minutes, 14 seconds.
“I think you’ve seen Aliyah improve lately,” Schaefer said. “I think that’s a mark of what we’ve done here at Mississippi State — we develop players … We don’t apologize for being demanding. She’s learning the importance of defending; now she’s learning to try and take care of the ball.”
With the Bulldogs battling a string of consistency issues, a date with the Rebels should offer another chance at finding some continuity on the floor and in the seemingly ever-changing rotation Schaefer has employed this season.
While MSU and Ole Miss sit just over 100 miles apart, the metaphorical distance between the two programs is even larger.
The Bulldogs entered this year following three straight runs to the Elite Eight, including two appearances in the national championship game. By contrast, the Rebels haven’t had a winning season since 2016-17, and they won a combined 21 games between the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
That same distance has been seen in the teams’ on-court matchups over the better part of the last decade as well. Since Schaefer arrived at MSU in 2012, the Bulldogs have utterly dominated the in-state rivalry, boasting a 14-2 record against the Rebels.
Having won six straight games over Ole Miss by double digits, MSU swept last year’s series by a combined score of 160-115 between the two matchups.
“When you’re trying to establish your program, there’s a way you want to do things, and you’ve got to get everybody on the same end of the rope, pulling in the same direction,” Schaefer said. “Sometimes that can be a challenge, but I know in watching them and having to play them last year and this year, they play extremely hard, and they’re well coached.”
Disparity aside, Sunday’s contest marks another chance for Mississippi basketball to take center stage nationally. With a borderline sellout expected at Humphrey Coliseum and a rivalry that remains among the nation’s most hostile regardless of the playing surface, Schaefer is cognizant of the game’s importance.
“We’ve had some very close ballgames, and sometimes in these games anything can happen,” he said. “For our kids, I think (sophomore guard) Myah (Taylor) said it best — it’s a meaningful game to a lot of people. I think for our kids, where we are with our program now, it’s a meaningful game because it’s the next game for us. We need to win. We’re at home. It’s a Sunday afternoon, we expect 10,000 at The Hump, and that in and of itself is important. We’re trying to get to 6-1 in the league, and I think if you get tied up with anything past that, sometimes you can lose focus.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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