STARKVILLE — The team is in place.
Now the No. 1 goal of Vic Schaefer, Johnnie Harris, Aqua Franklin, Brittany Hudson, and Maryann Baker is to sell Mississippi State University women’s basketball.
Schaefer, the former Texas A&M University and University of Arkansas assistant coach, was hired in March to replace Sharon Fanning-Otis as MSU’s coach. He spent the first two-plus months on the job assembling a staff he calls the “A-Team” and establishing a foundation that will help the Lady Bulldogs get back to the NCAA tournament and be a perennial contender in the Southeastern Conference and on the national scene.
After losing six seniors — including Diamber Johnson and Porsha Porter, the team’s top two scorers, and bringing in at least one freshman newcomer — Jessy Ward, Schaefer is honest that building MSU back to the level it reached in 2009-10 when it advanced to the program’s first Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament will be a challenge. But Schaefer didn’t earn the nickname “Secretary of Defense” because he backs down from challenges. Instead, the veteran coach and his assistant coaches are focused on finding hard-nosed, intense players who are willing to play tough defense and to be a part of a growing program.
“I have hired the ‘A-Team,’ ” Schaefer said. “It is nobody’s fault but mine if it doesn’t work out.”
Schaefer said last month his goal was to hire coaches who brought different strengths to the table. In hiring Harris, a coach he worked with at Texas A&M, he says MSU has a great recruiter and “mother figure” who will provide experience and support. He said Franklin, a former player at Texas A&M, a former assistant coach at the University of Kansas, and a former professional player, will provide toughness and the understanding of what it takes to play for him.
Schaefer said Hudson and Baker, the director of basketball operations, bring enthusiasm and energy to a staff he feels has great chemistry. He
said he and his assistant coaches are still finalizing roles and responsibilities because he wants to identify what area each coach is best at so everyone will be focused on elevating MSU women’s basketball.
“You want he entire staff to be highly motivated,” Schaefer said. “For the job we have to do here, we have to be highly motivated.”
Schaefer and his assistant coaches hope their drive is evident on the recruiting trail. Schaefer said he and his staff will spend most of the month of July on the road trying to locate the top talent in the country. He believes MSU has the facilities to attract the best players from all across the country, and that a key part of the initial work will be to help high school players learn about MSU.
Part of that process includes a detail Schaefer relates from a story through MSU sports information staff member Brock Turnipseed. Last season when MSU visited College Station, Texas, to play Texas A&M, members of the MSU travel party were asked by Aggies fans, “How did Michigan State do today?” Schaefer related the story while wearing a gray, short-sleeve buttoned shirt with a MSU logo on the right breast. His goal is to use tools that help build brand association with Mississippi State so the school isn’t confused with a Big Ten Conference institution or a school like Missouri State University, which has maroon as its primary color and uses “MSU” on some of its teams’ uniforms.
Schaefer feels improved recognition of “Mississippi State” will be crucial because he feels he has a reputation and an identity he and his assistant coaches can market. Schaefer and Harris played integral roles in helping to lead Texas A&M to the 2011 national title.
“I think nationally people understand what we’re about, they know what my history has been at A&M and my involvement there, and they know the kind of player I am interested in,” Schaefer said. “We have had lots of phone calls and lots of people reaching out to us and going, ‘This kid can play in your system. They understand toughness and they understand it is important to guard and defend.’ ”
Schaefer said he won’t pursue any quick fixes to get MSU to the championship level. He said he hopes to build the program with freshmen and that he and his assistant coaches will pursue junior college players only if they can be “difference” players at MSU. That strategy could mean MSU is young for another year or two, but Schaefer said he isn’t going to change what he wants — highly motivated, tough, aggressive players — to get the job done in Starkville.
“Our foundation will be freshmen,” Schaefer said. “We will build our program with them. I think our administration understands there is going to be a transition period right now. … Our foundation will be with high school players, and being able to work with them for an extended period of time and develop them.”
With plenty of talented players in the state of Mississippi and surrounding states, Schaefer is confident he and his assistant coaches will have success when they hit the recruiting trail. He said he won’t limit himself or the program if players from other parts of the country feel they are the right fit for his system.
Even though practice won’t start until October, Schaefer and his assistant coaches are focused on getting results as soon as possible.
“It is an exciting time for us,” Schaefer said of the July recruiting period. “We will be wearing ‘Mississippi State’ on the front of our T-shirts and our polos and be excited to wear that and the maroon and white. (We want) to bring here what people know us for across the country, which is hard work, commitment, a level of expectation, and a way of doing things. I have said this many times, it is not what we do but how we do it that separates us. That is what we’re going to bring to Mississippi State. I think that is what has people excited across the country. I had somebody tell me over the weekend that, ‘Coach, we want to be in on the front of this, not the back end.’ “
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.