STARKVILLE — Blair Schaefer is developing a shooter’s mentality.
If you’re thinking Schaefer already is one of the best shooters on the Mississippi State women’s basketball team, you’re right. The 5-foot-7 guard has one of the quickest releases on the team and can challenge Victoria Vivians or Kayla Nevitt in a shooting contest from any spot on the floor.
But being an effective shooter is so much more about being able to hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and then running the baseline and hitting another trey from the right corner. For Schaefer, becoming a better shooter means understanding she has to put one or two misses behind her and be able to keep shooting. Factor in a drive that makes Schaefer, the daughter of MSU coach Vic Schaefer, one of the best students on the team and you begin to understand the challenge she faces in pushing herself and meeting the high standard she sets for herself.
“Competing is what makes you better,” Schaefer said. “But if I mess up, whether somebody comes in for me or not, I have to have the mentality that I am ready and put me back in and I am going to do better. Knowing somebody is there that could sub me out, it is definitely a little pressure to be consistent in a good way, but I think having a bunch of good players around you makes you better, and you should be in more positive situations than negative situations.
“I don’t need to worry about messing up. I just have to worry about playing because if you just worry about playing you shouldn’t feel pressure because it is just a game.”
Schaefer saw double-digit minutes seven times last season in a record-breaking campaign that saw MSU win a school-record 27 games, including a program-best 11 in the Southeastern Conference. But none of those games came in 2015. In fact, she played more than four minutes only one time (against South Carolina) in a SEC game. But Schaefer intends to change that this season. She said she spent much of her offseason in the gym working on her shot. She said she would stay in the same spot until she didn’t miss, taking as many as 600 shots a day from multiple positions or 500 shots from one position. She said she started her regimen at the beginning of the first summer school session
and worked as many as six days a week until early August.
Schaefer didn’t tabulate her shooting totals, but she thinks her percentages were consistently in the 80-percent range. She said she had a few in the 90-percent range. There would be other days she would walk out of the gym mad — even though she shot the ball well percentage wise — because she is hard on herself. She said balancing that mind-set will be a challenge because she knows what she will have to do to earn playing time and that she will have to have a short memory if she misses a shot or two.
Schaefer said she also worked on her defense and her ballhandling in an effort to raise her minutes played (6.8 per game last season) and to make a bigger contribution (2.5 points per game in 24 games) than she did last
season.
Coach Schaefer said Blair and Nevitt, a sophomore, worked hard in the offseason to improve their skills. He said Nevitt and Blair bring different things to the table, which adds to the versatility and depth that has helped earn MSU so much respect in the preseason rankings. On Thursday, MSU was ranked No. 13 in the USA Today poll, which is voted on by coaches. Earlier in the preseason, MSU was ranked No. 6 by Athlon Sports and No. 8 by Lindy’s.
Coach Schaefer said Blair also could see playing time at point guard, but he said it would depend on the team and the defense the Bulldogs were facing.
On Thursday night, Blair played a little point guard in the Maroon-White scrimmage. That move was necessitated in part by the absence of sophomore point guard Morgan William, who missed the event due to an injury. Freshman center Zion Campbell also didn’t play in the scrimmage.
Vivians, a preseason first-team All-Southeastern Conference, led all scorers with 20 points in the scrimmage. Freshman center Teaira McCowan had 15 points and 13 rebounds, while juniors Breanna Richardson and Ketara Chapel added 14 and 10 points, respectively. Nevitt had 13 points and six rebounds, while freshman Jazzmun Holmes had 10 points and senior Sherise Williams had nine points and six rebounds. Chinwe Okorie and Schaefer had eight points apiece, while Okorie added seven rebounds.
The bottom line, though, is Blair has a quick release and can be deadly from distance, so her ability to make shots will play a large role in her ability to earn minutes.
“She just has to make shots,” Schaefer said. “At the end of the day, that is what dictates a lot of her ability to play the game, making shots and being smart defensively and keeping her player in front of her. She is very, very smart in understanding help-side defense, and she is absolutely tougher than nails as far as stepping in front of people taking charges.
“She brings some things on both ends of the floor to the table. As a freshman, she made some big shots. She has taken some big charges also. Those are things that get coach Schaefer’s attention, and he wants his whole team to do.”
Schaefer knows that all too well. She said she learned a lot playing behind guards like Kendra Grant and Jerica James last season. She knows there will be plenty of guards — Dominique Dillingham, Vivians, Nevitt, William, Holmes — in the mix this season, too, but she feels a different mind-set will help her find her spot on the floor.
“Now I am one of the good guards instead of being behind the good guards,” Schaefer said. “I think I need to take that into consideration and think I’m going to be the player they’re going to look to, so I need to have confidence I am going into the game to play and I am not going in as a role player. Now I am going in because I am going to play and more aspects are needed instead of (it being) you need a shot, put me in.
“Last year, I felt like I had a spot on the bench. I don’t want to have a distinct spot on the bench. I want to be in the game so much that I have to sit wherever I sit for a little bit of time and then I go back in. I want it to be like if you need a shooter, put me in. I want to be that person that you don’t have to question if I am going to make it. If you need a shot, you think of Blair.”
MSU will play host to Mississippi College at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, in its only exhibition game. It will play host to Samford at 5:15 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13, in its season opener at Humphrey Coliseum.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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