STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State women’s basketball team will attempt its first chemistry experiment tonight.

Coach Vic Schaefer isn’t sure what he is going to see at 6 tonight when No. 10 takes on Arkansas-Fort Smith in an exhibition game at Humphrey Coliseum, but he intends to mix and match pieces to get a sense if this year’s team is ready to start living up to all of its preseason accolades.

“I’m proud of where we are going into year five,” Schaefer said. “It’s time to live it. We are excited about the opportunity.”

Admission to the game is free. Fans will get a chance to get their first look at a MSU team that earned its highest preseason rating in school history in The Associated Press Top 25 poll that was released Tuesday. MSU also is ranked No. 11 in the USA Today Coaches’ Preseason Top 25.

MSU also is ranked No. 10 by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) preseason poll, No. 12 by ESPNW, No. 7 by Sporting News and Athlon Sports, No. 8 by Slam Magazine, and No. 12 by Lindy’s.

MSU was picked second behind South Carolina in the Southeastern Conference preseason.

The Bulldogs earned the lofty accolades thanks to a program-record 28-win season that saw them match the program standard with 11 SEC victories en route to a second trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

MSU will try to improve on that finish with a squad that returns five starters and nine letterwinners, including leading scorer Victoria Vivians and top rebounder Chinwe Okorie.

Vivians, a preseason All-SEC selection, is the SEC’s top-returning scorer (17.1 points per game). Okorie was fourth on the team in scoring (6.8 ppg.), first in rebounding (6.0 per game), and second in blocked shots (26).

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve really built a lot of chemistry,” Okorie said. “We’re really working on playing together, so as a team we’re playing well. As individuals we’ve been playing well and improving, too, so we’re ready to go.”

Junior point guard Morgan William, who was second in scoring at 9.7 ppg., also returns with seniors Dominique Dillingham, Breanna Richardson, and Ketara Chapel. But Vivians, who enters her junior season with 1,121-career points, 17th-most in school history and fifth-most by a returning SEC player, will be the team’s go-to player.

“We’ve all been working hard, and we’ve all been improving,” Vivians said. “Everyone on this team has the chance to start and play so we’ve been fighting for our positions. No one is safe on this team for a position, so we’ve been fighting for everything so far.”

Schaefer praised the work of Vivians and Okorie in practice. He said they “bring it every day” and help to set the tone for the Bulldogs. He said the team will need plenty of leaders like that in the first two months of the season because MSU plays only three of its 14 non-conference games in Starkville.

“We’ve got the game, we’ve been there,” Okorie said. “We have the chemistry, we have the grind. We just have to go out there and go play.”

Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.