STARKVILLE — Mississippi State women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer takes time to pinpoint the highlights and lowlights after every game.
It usually takes Schaefer a few minutes to find the highlights (circles) and lowlights (squares) on the stat sheet prior to his post-game news conference.
But as much as Schaefer is into numbers and research and charting tendencies, he hasn’t had time to mark up the latest Southeastern Conference stats to see how his team compares to the rest of the league.
If Schaefer did, he would see MSU is first in eight of the SEC’s 21 offensive and defensive categories. The Bulldogs are ranked second to fourth in nine more.
Those statistics help explain why MSU is No. 9 in The Associated Press rankings and the USA Today Coaches Poll this week. At 7-1, MSU will try to bolster those stats at 7 tonight when it plays host to Southern Mississippi (6-2) at Humphrey Coliseum.
“I really try to stay away from (the stats), and I did it for a reason,” Schaefer said. “I know what I am looking at, and I don’t want something to distort what I am looking at. Sometimes because of maybe a couple of teams we have played, those numbers could be skewed a little bit. But Sunday, when they decided to hook up, we were awfully good. We would have beat a lot of people that day.”
MSU is coming off a 93-63 victory against Louisiana Tech on Sunday in Ruston, Louisiana. Sophomore guard Victoria Vivians had 28 of her season-high 36 points in the first half. She was 13 of 23 from the field, including 7 of 15 from 3-point range. Her total of seven 3-pointers was one shy of the school record.
Vivians, who leads the SEC in scoring at 20.1 points per game, leads MSU in shots attempted (128). Her total is more than double each one of the other 13 Bulldogs on the roster. MSU is the only team in the SEC that can make that claim. It also has the highest difference between its leading scorer and its second-leading scorer (10.2 ppg.; Teaira McCowan, 9.9 ppg.).
Vivians’ scoring output is a primary factor in MSU being first in the SEC in scoring (86.2 ppg.) and scoring margin (41.8 ppg.). MSU also leads the SEC in scoring defense (44.5 ppg.), rebounding margin (+14.5), assists (19.6 per game), turnover margin (+13.9), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5), and offensive rebound percentage (47.6 percent).
Last season, Vivians led MSU in scoring at 14.9 ppg. She did so by taking double the number of shots of all but one — Breanna Richardson — of her teammates and shooting 36.8 percent from the field. This season, Vivians is ninth in the SEC in field goal percentage (46.9).
Last season, Vivians shot virtually the same percentage from the field (36.8 vs. 36.7) in non-conference games and SEC games.
Schaefer acknowledges the bull’s eye on Vivians’ back is pretty big in part to her fast start and the fact she recently was one of 30 players named to the Naismith Trophy Early Season Watch List by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Vivians also was named to the watch lists for the Wooden Award and the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award.
“I think as time goes on people will try to do a number of different things (against her on defense),” Schaefer said. “I have seen her get 61 with three of them hanging on her. It might not be three as athletic and tall and quick as the ones (in college or in the SEC), but the good thing for her is she doesn’t have to go get 61 with three hanging on her (at MSU) because … if somebody is going to double her, somebody is going to make them pay.
“She has to learn to continue to grow and mature and learn that when they have some stud guarding you, you’re still better. I am still going to have confidence to call your number and we are still going to win and you’re still going to be able to score.”
Vivians doesn’t feel her role in the offense has changed from last season. She said she is “way more mature” because she “rushed a lot of my shots” last season.
Junior guard Dominique Dillingham sees a big difference in Vivians.
“She is making more shots, too, because she is taking better shots,” Dillingham said. “She is taking what the defense is giving her. I think she has expanded her offensive game a lot more. You are seeing her driving a lot more.”
Schaefer said he isn’t concerned about the discrepancy between the number of shots Vivians has taken and the rest of the Bulldogs. He said Vivians, the state’s all-time leading high school scorer with 5,745 points, can do things on the basketball court that not many can do, so the Bulldogs are going to take advantage of her skills and confidence on the offensive end.
“In my career, you have a chance to coach certain players that are better than others,” Schaefer said. “I am sitting up here with (Vivians and Dillingham) two of the most impactful players in 31 years of coaching. They are very different players. One scores a lot. One keeps the other team from scoring a lot, so everybody has a value, but their value, in my mind, is equal and impactful in their own way.
“Victoria is a special, special player. We knew that when we started recruiting her. The thing that you love about her is she wants to take the big shot, she is not afraid to take the big shot.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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