It has been more than 18 years since Van Chancellor last coached in an Ole Miss-Mississippi State women’s basketball game.
That doesn’t mean Chancellor has forgotten the magnitude of the rivalry.
“It was the biggest game on our schedule. No doubt in my mind,” Chancellor said. “We might have won a few more games, but it still was an intense game.”
Ole Miss won more than “a few more” against MSU in Chancellor’s time as coach in Oxford. In fact, the legendary coach, who also led the WNBA’s Houston Comets and coached at LSU, was 37-1 against MSU from 1978-97. One-sided results like that don’t fit the definition of a rivalry, but times have changed since Chancellor left Ole Miss.
MSU enters today’s 89th installment of the rivalry with a 24-13 edge dating back to 1998, the year after Chancellor left Ole Miss. The past three meetings have been three of the rivalries most competitive games, as all of them, including the Bulldogs’ 64-62 win earlier this season in Oxford, have been decided by two points.
Today, No. 11 MSU (25-5, 10-5 Southeastern Conference) expects what could be a record-breaking crowd for a “Blackout” promotion that coincides with Senior Day for Martha Alwal, Savannah Carter, Kendra Grant, and Jerica James.
Chancellor said it is satisfying to see that the rivalry has progressed to the point that both teams are competitive in the SEC and are vying to make the NCAA tournament in the same season for the first time.
“Right now the rivalry has reached as big as it can get,” Chancellor said. “Rivalries recruit against each other. Rivalries play each other. That is where we are today.”
Chancellor said it doesn’t matter if Ole Miss (17-11, 7-8) and MSU are playing in front of two people or 200,000 people because the result is significant to a lot of people. In women’s basketball, the crowds haven’t always been huge, but that hasn’t taken away from the intensity of the matchups. As an example, Chancellor recalled one time when he received a phone call from a man from Jackson who told him he didn’t keep up with women’s basketball and didn’t know many players on the Ole Miss team, but he said he wanted him to know it was important to beat MSU. If Chancellor helped Ole Miss do that, he said he was free to go into a steak house in the city and tell them to charge his meal to his account. Chancellor’s team beat MSU in that game, so he was more than happy to take his family there and have an appetizer, a steak dinner, and dessert.
“You forget in those days we were not making what the coaches make today,” Chancellor said.
Chancellor parlayed his advantage against MSU into dominance at the national level. In 1982, Chancellor guided the Rebels to an appearance in the first NCAA tournament. After that, Ole Miss extended that run to 11 years in a row, including three trips to the Sweet 16 and four trips to the Elite Eight.
In the same time period, MSU had six seasons in which it failed to win a game in the SEC. It advanced to the postseason only once, a bid to the Women’s Invitation Tournament in 1988.
Chancellor said the games against MSU grew closer as the years went on, even though Ole Miss leads the series 63-25. He said he knew MSU was going to be a “force to be reckoned with” after Kunshinge Sorrell, a standout at Northeast Mississippi Community College, opted to play basketball in Starkville. Sorrell went on to score 1,292 and become one of only two players (Mary Boatright is the other) to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in only two seasons in Starkville.
Despite her scoring success, Sorrell couldn’t lead MSU to a victory against Ole Miss. She came close, though, as a layup by Cynthia Autry with 39 seconds to go helped Ole Miss escape with a 72-71 victory before a crowd of 1,076 at Humphrey Coliseum on Feb. 20, 1988. Up until that point, MSU had beaten Ole Miss only once — an 86-83 decision on Nov. 24, 1980.
MSU coach Sharon Fanning-Otis, the program’s all-time winningest coach, lost six of her first seven games against Ole Miss before she helped engineer a reversal of fortunes. The arrival of LaToya Thomas from Greenville helped turn things in MSU’s favor. Starting from when Thomas arrived in Starkville for the 1999-2000 season, MSU went 8-1 against Ole Miss. The only loss she suffered was a 74-57 setback on Feb. 1, 2001, in which she scored 23 points but couldn’t help MSU overcome 21 turnovers. Tywanna Inmon had 19 points and 10 rebounds to lead four Rebels in double figures.
“In order to progress as a team, you have to win everything close to you,” said Fanning-Otis, who led MSU to 11 postseason appearances in 17 seasons. “You need to have a winning program to do that. I think it always makes a statement when you win any ballgame, especially when you take care of your state and your region and progress from a national standpoint. Being consistent in your league and in your state is just part of the formula for winning. I think (beating Ole Miss) was just part of the process. It was one of the pieces that needed to happen.”
Of all her memories of playing against Ole Miss, Fanning-Otis said MSU’s 73-71 victory against Ole Miss on Jan. 28, 2007, in Oxford stands out. In that game, guard Marneshia Richard hit the game-winning shot with one second remaining. The shot was a part of a 15-point, five-assist, four-rebound, three-steal effort by Richard.
“Any time you beat an in-state rival at home it is big,” Fanning-Otis said. “That was an important step. When Marneshia hit the game-winning shot it was one that you never forget, sort of like Morgan William with her step-back shot to win. You never forget things like that.”
On Jan. 22, 2015, William, a freshman point guard, used a between-the-legs dribble to give herself separation from the defender and time to hit a 17-foot jump shot in the waning seconds to help MSU edge Ole Miss 64-62. That margin of victory is one of 13 in the past 20 meetings that has been by 10 points or less. Ole Miss won the first 17 meetings in the series, and 19 of the first 20. Six of those games — five Ole Miss wins — were decided by 10 points or less.
Now that the rivalry appears to resemble the actual definition, Fanning-Otis likes the direction MSU coach Vic Schaefer has the program going. She said MSU football coach Dan Mullen helped elevate the rivalry to another level. She said she hopes both teams can continue to keep it there.
Chancellor agrees. He said it doesn’t matter where people are in the state of Mississippi because they will have an interest in an Ole Miss-MSU game. When it comes to women’s basketball, he feels the rivalry is at a special moment.
“Right now it is at the height of intensity and the height of competitiveness,” Chancellor said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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