STARKVILLE — Playing in your home state is always fun.
That excitement gets magnified when you’re a member of a top-10 team.
When the matchup involves another top-10 team, it’s difficult to get downright giddy, even if it is only December.
No. 9 MSU (5-0) will try to temper its enthusiasm and keep its focus at 7 tonight when it takes on No. 6 Texas at the Frank C. Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. The Longhorn Network will broadcast the game live. The game can be heard locally on WNMQ-FM 103.1.
While the matchup will be the first true test of the season for MSU, the hardest part for Texas natives Kayla Nevitt, Dominique Dillingham, and Teaira McCowan has been trying to scrounge up enough tickets to accommodate the requests from friends and family members.
“They only allowed me to get 15 (tickets), which was very unfortunate, but I used all of those 15,” said Nevitt, a sophomore guard. “I tried to transfer Zion (Campbell’s) tickets to me and I was looking for my name and it wasn’t there anymore.”
Nevitt said her grandmother, who is in Austin visiting from Michigan, her aunt, her mother, her father, and her cousins will be at the game. Dillingham said she secured 13 tickets for her family members and friends. She said a few more family members and friends also will come. She joked that they will sneak in to join the MSU rooting section.
MSU coach Vic Schaefer, who was born at University Medical Center Brackenridge, which is across the street from the Erwin Center, which is nicknamed “The Drum,” also is very familiar with the state of Texas. The former associate head coach at Texas A&M understands the magnitude of the televised matchup against an opponent that is coming off a 64-53 victory against then-No. 4 Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee.
But as much as Schaefer would love to roll out of Austin with a victory, he sounded a cautious tone Tuesday when he said the game won’t determine any championships and that he anticipates his young team to continue to grow deep into the season.
“(Texas coach Karen Aston) probably has a better idea of where her team is now today than where we know where we are today, but that is OK,” Schaefer said. “I am excited to take these young ladies on the road and see how they respond in that environment.”
MSU is coming off a 92-25 victory against Savannah State on Sunday. The Bulldogs enter the game ranked second nationally in scoring at 93.6 points per game. The team has scored 90 or more points in four-straight games for the first time since 1999-2000.
On the other end, MSU is holding opponents to 30.3 percent shooting from the field. It also has forced 141 turnovers and has committed only 49.
But Texas should provide challenges MSU hasn’t seen. The Longhorns figure to start three seniors and a junior. They also have size in 6-foot-7 senior center Imani Boyette and 6-5 junior center Kelsey Lang that the Bulldogs haven’t faced. The game also figures to attract a very good crowd. How many of those fans will be rooting for MSU remains to be seen, but Nevitt and Dillingham feel confident the Bulldogs will have plenty of support. Now it is up to MSU to answer its first challenge of the season as a top-10-team.
“It’s a great opportunity to be going back home to play because not many of my family members have seen us play,” said Nevitt, who lives about two hours from Austin. “It is a great opportunity to play in our home state, to play against a good team, and I think all of us are excited to have this opportunity.”
Said Dillingham, “I think it will mean a lot to us if we win, but, again, it won’t determine anything. … If we lose, we’ll still learn something from it. Hopefully we do win. It will be a learning experience no matter what.”
Schaefer also is anxious to see how some of his young players respond to the challenge. He also is eager to see how many people respond to his mass emails encouraging them to come to the game. He hopes some of the contingent from the largest Bulldog Club in Houston, Texas, will be there, too.
“It is an exciting thing,” Schaefer said. “We are playing a great basketball team in Texas. … We will be going against a well-coach, highly skilled basketball team. There are a lot of All-Americans on that team, and we are going to a place that traditionally has been very, very good, and they are very, very good now.”
n In related news, McCowan, who is from Brenham, Texas, which is about 30 miles from Austin, was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week on Tuesday.
The 6-7 center had three-straight games with double-figure rebounds, including a pair of double-doubles. She ended the week averaging 15 ppg and 11 rebounds per game. She also averaged three blocked shots per game, including a season-best five against Savannah State. … MSU moved up one spot to No. 9 in the USA Today Top 25, which is voted on by the coaches and was released Tuesday. The Bulldogs dropped one spot to No. in The Associated Press poll, which came out Monday.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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