STARKVILLE — Jazmine Spears likes to think her game includes a little piece of everything.
From shooting, to rebounding, to dribbling, the 6-foot forward used those skills to be a scoring sensation at New Albany High School. After committing to play for Mississippi State and women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer, Spears failed to qualify academically and spent two years at Trinity Valley (Texas) Community College, where she played an integral role in one national championship.
This season, Spears has arrived at MSU and is part of a talented group of power forwards that includes juniors Breanna Richardson and Ketara Chapel and sophomore LaKaris Salter. Senior Sherise Williams also could be in the mix depending on how much she is used at center.
Schaefer hopes Spears can use the talents and competitiveness he saw at New Albany High and be an important contributor for a program that is looking to build off a program-record 27-win season and a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“I think it has been pretty much a normal transition,” Schaefer said. “Most junior college players come in and it’s quite a bit different. I think from her standpoint it has been that transition. It always seems to be a little slow. I have to give (former MSU guard) Savannah Carter a little credit because she came in and really changed our program from a work habit, intensity every day in practice standpoint.
“I think for Jazz it has been a learning experience that probably has been like most of our freshmen. It is learning, adjusting, more adjusting, trying to understand what coach wants, how he wants it done, and realizing how the way I have been doing it is not the way I want it done.”
Last season, Spears, averaged 14.6 points and 9.4 rebounds a game to lead the Lady Cardinals to a 26-3 record and a No. 4 national finish. Spears earned National Junior College Athletic Association and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-America honors for her efforts.
As a freshman at Trinity Valley, Spears averaged 11.9 points and 7.6 rebounds a game to help then-coach Elena Lovato’s team go 27-1 and win the program’s third-straight national championship.
Spears’ scoring exploits shouldn’t be surprising because she scored 3,277 points and grabbed 2,149 rebounds and was a three-time All-State performer and Clarion-Ledger Dandy Dozen selection at New Albany High.
Spears said she is making a “big transition” to the Division I game. She said the adjustment to the junior college game was a faster pace that she had to get used to. At MSU, she said she that pace is even higher, especially on the defensive end.
Schaefer said his goal is to find four players who are able to combine all of the aspects he needs every night. He has said in the preseason that he is committed to giving Richardson minutes at the three, or small forward, which would open more playing time for the remaining power forwards. If that is the case, someone has to emerge to provide the scoring, passing, rebounding, and defense Schaefer desires because he said he can’t play all four of them at the same time.
Schaefer believes Spears has all of the skills he wants in a power forward.
“She did something right in junior college to be a first-team All-American, so our challenge is to get that Jazmine back and to get her playing like that,” Schaefer said. “It is an every-day deal. She has to work at it and we have to coach at it.”
Spears believes she can bring all of those things to the court. She also sees the same qualities in her teammates, which she feels will give the Bulldogs plenty of depth and options if one player is having an off night.
“We are pretty much the same,” Spears said. “We all can shoot, we all can dribble, we call can pass good, but everybody has a different style of doing it.”
Spears hopes she will continue to settle into the Bulldogs’ style of play. She said that adjustment in practice hasn’t happened as quickly as she thought it would, but she is trying to get better every day and not to worry about the past.
Spears said going against players like Richardson, Chapel, Salter, and Williams every day in practice has helped her tremendously. She feels it will help prepare her for life in the Southeastern Conference, which is regarded as one of the nation’s top conferences. After being picked third in the SEC preseason poll earlier in the week, MSU anticipates having an even bigger bull’s eye on its back, especially after its success last season. If Spears can perform at the level she did in high school and in junior college, she feels she can help the Bulldogs have an even bigger season.
“I expect to just be the player I was at Trinity Valley and, maybe, even more,” Spears said. “I am just willing to do anything for my teammates.
“It is a little harder (compared to Trinity Valley). I just have to keep focused and know I have to give it my all every day.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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