STARKVILLE — Mississippi State was already a program on the rise when longtime Texas A&M assistant Vic Schaefer arrived as the Bulldogs’ new head coach in 2012. But the Bulldogs reached heights previously unimaginable under Schaefer, who drew sellout crowds to Humphrey Coliseum and made women’s basketball a big deal at MSU.
Schaefer won two Southeastern Conference titles and took the Bulldogs to the national championship game in 2017 and 2018. His crowning achievement came in the 2017 Final Four, when Morgan William’s game-winning jumper in overtime ended Connecticut’s record 111-game winning streak.
After eight years in Starkville, Schaefer returned to his home state and took over as the head coach at Texas in 2020. The move came as a shock to some, especially given that it came mere weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, but Schaefer has continued his success with the Longhorns, reaching the Elite Eight in three of his first four seasons in Austin. On Thursday night, he will be back at The Hump — and he will bring the nation’s top-ranked team with him.
“We have so many special friends there still to this day. Such fond memories,” Schaefer told media in Austin this week. “Those eight years we spent there, they were the eight best years of the Schaefer family’s lives. Both my kids are graduates of Mississippi State. They’re Bulldogs. We just had so much great fun, great success there.”
Schaefer’s daughter, Blair, played under her father at MSU and joined the starting lineup as a senior on the 2018 team that had an undefeated regular season and won the program’s first-ever SEC title before losing on a buzzer-beater to Notre Dame in the national title game.
Blair then joined the Bulldogs’ staff for Vic’s final season in Starkville as coordinator of player development, and she is now an assistant coach on Vic’s staff at Texas.
“What he did with that women’s basketball program was just remarkable,” Blair said this week. “To bring them from the bottom of the SEC to the top of women’s college basketball, that was really special to witness and be a part of. When he left, there were some mixed emotions from fans. Obviously people don’t always know everything that goes on in people’s lives and people’s careers, so now, people have a real respect for everything he did.”
The Schaefer family still owns property in Starkville, and Vic recently purchased another farm near Louisville. Current MSU head coach Sam Purcell said he has even flown home from recruiting visits with Vic’s wife, Holly.
“Now that we’re both in the same conference, we got a little time to spend together at the SEC head coaches meetings that we have every year,” Purcell said. “A lot of respect for who he is. And the cool thing about living in Starkville, this is a unique situation because he still lives here. He still has a home. I hope we give (Blair) the respect and the love that she deserves, because we’re a program of class.”
Scouting Texas
Coming off a blowout win Sunday over Texas A&M, the Bulldogs (19-9, 6-8 SEC) host Schaefer and the No. 1 Longhorns (27-2, 13-1), who just held Georgia to 27 points Monday night in Athens. Texas has won 11 straight games, including huge victories over South Carolina, Kentucky and LSU, and the Longhorns’ only two losses were on the road against Notre Dame and South Carolina.
Schaefer has yet to reach the Final Four in Austin, but this team feels like his best shot yet, and Texas is poised to win the SEC in its first year in the conference.
“There’s talent, but there’s one thing to be said about talent and how hard they play,” Purcell said. “This group plays hard. They get after it on the defensive end. There might be times when they struggle on the offensive end, but every single night they’re going to muck it up and they’re going to make it ugly. It’s very impressive to watch on tape. There’s a good chemistry about them.”
Sophomore Madison Booker, who grew up in Mississippi, leads the Longhorns in scoring with 16.2 points per game. Texas is second in the SEC in field goal percentage but second-to-last in 3-point percentage, although most of the time they haven’t needed to shoot from behind the arc much.
The Longhorns’ length is a problem for almost every opponent — Taylor Jones, at 6-foot-4, averages 12.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game, while sixth woman Kyla Oldacre stands 6-foot-6 and scores 9.4 points despite playing less than 18 minutes on average. Texas has the SEC’s best scoring defense, and most problematic for MSU, the Longhorns are second in the conference forcing nearly 22 turnovers per contest.
“You can see that at least in games, they do a good job knowing who needs to take what shots, what everybody’s role is, and being really sound and solid both offensively and defensively,” Purcell said. “They can win ugly like they did the other night against Georgia. Or they’re able, if you want to run and gun, they can put up 100. When you have a team that’s flexible like that, that’s why they have a chance to win the national championship this year.”
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