STARKVILLE — Numbers can consume you.
But anyone who knows Victoria Vivians can tell you there is so much more to her than 5,745 or 46.2.
That’s why it’s informative to play a game of word association to find out what motivates Vivians, the standout freshman from Scott Central High School who is centerpiece of the Mississippi State women’s basketball team’s latest recruiting class.
Word association is a game in which someone asks another person a word and they have to say the first thing that comes to their mind. The answer can be a sentence or one word.
The first word Vivians was asked was pressure.
“Pressure to me is being down in a game or in overtime and taking the game-winning shot,” Vivians said.
The second word Vivians was asked was responsibility.
“Carrying the team on your back,” Vivians said.
The third — SEC Freshman of the Year — was the most revealing.
“Me,” Vivians said with a smile and a laugh.
Don’t mistake Vivians’ confidence for arrogance. At 6-foot-1, Vivians has the potential to be an impact freshman in a program that has seen talents like LaToya Thomas, of Greenville, and Tan White, of Tupelo, come to Starkville and dazzle fans in the state of Mississippi. Vivians hopes to do the same thing as part of a talented five-player recruiting class that also includes Kayla Nevitt, LaKaris Salter, Blair Schaefer, and Morgan William. The five players join a talented returning class that hopes to help the Bulldogs improve on their 22-14 finish and a trip to the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament last season.
Vivians and the freshmen were fortunate to get a head start on the 2014-15 season this summer when they traveled played in four exhibition games in Europe (two each in Belgium and France). Vivians tied sophomore forward Breanna Richardson for the team lead in scoring at 15.3 points per game on the trip. She scored in double figures in all four games and had a double-double (double figures in two statistical categories, 22 points, 10 rebounds) in the final game.
MSU coach Vic Schaefer doesn’t anticipate Vivians having any problem transitioning to the Southeastern Conference.
“As I saw her over there, she continued to get a little more comfortable each game,” Schaefer said. “She will learn she doesn’t have to do it by herself and that she has help. She will learn to enjoy making that great assist as much as scoring. In high school, she probably got chewed out if she passed the ball, and rightfully so. She had to score. She had to shoot every time she possibly could for them to have a chance to win.”
Vivians’ success on the trip shouldn’t have been surprising given everything she accomplished at the prep level. The five-star recruit from Scott Central High finished her career with 5,745 points, which smashed the state scoring record held by former MSU standout Mary Kathryn Govero. Vivians’ total is second in National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) history with 5,172 points. The NFHS doesn’t recognize Vivians’ eighth-grade scoring because she wasn’t a high-school aged player at the time.
As a senior, Vivians led the nation in scoring 46.2 points per game. The mark was better than her state record and ranked fifth among all national records. She also was a four-time All-State selection, and twice was named Mississippi’s Miss Basketball.
Given everything she accomplished (and the accolades listed above are only a sample), Vivians said some people doubt she will be able to transition to the SEC, which many believe is the nation’s best conference. Vivians said people look at the role she played at Scott Central High and feel she was a one-player show who scored all of her points because she didn’t have any help.
Vivians doesn’t shy away from the comments. A smile comes to her face when she is told it is surprising anyone would doubt whether she will be able to take the next step to the Division I level. Vivians said her experience in Amateur Athletic Union basketball allowed her to play against many of the nation’s top prospects. She fees her ability to excel at that level offers a glimpse of what she will be able to do at MSU.
Schaefer agrees and feels Vivians has an opportunity to blossom in college because teams won’t be able to double- or triple-team her like they did in high school. If they do, he feels he and his staff have recruited enough talent to make teams pay.
“For her, learning to enjoy the assists, learning to enjoy her teammates’ success, those are all things she is going to really understand and enjoy here with her teammates, but you don’t want to take away her aggressiveness offensively, her confidence, her willingness to take the game-winner,” Schaefer said. “She has that in her, and it has been ingrained in her. Coach (Chad) Harrison has done a great job developing her and her toughness.”
Schaefer said Vivians is versatile enough to play a guard (the two, or off guard) or forward (the three, or small forward). He said Vivians will have to improve her ballhandling so she will be able to hold her own against smaller, quicker players. On the flip side, he feels Vivians’ size, shooting range, and all-around offensive game will make her a difficult matchup at either position. He also said Vivians’ ability to play multiple positions will give him the flexibility to use different lineups — one with more height that features post players Martha Alwal and Chinwe Okorie, or one with less height and more shooters.
Schaefer gave Vivians one of the ultimate compliments when he compared her to Danielle Adams, who Schaefer helped recruit to Texas A&M and helped the Aggies win a national title. Adams is now a member of the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars. Like Adams, Schaefer said Vivians “loves to play basketball and nobody is going to ruin her day on the basketball court.”
Vivians agrees and prefers to let her game do the talking on the court. She said she is eager to shoulder a big role and a lot of responsibility at MSU. She said her goal is to be a teammate the other Bulldogs can trust and depend on. If that means taking the game-winning shot, she will do it. If that means making the pass that sets up one of her teammates for the game-winning shot, she’s excited about that, too.
Vivians also doesn’t want people to think she won’t be able to flourish because defense might not be a part of her game people recognize. She understands how much importance Schaefer places on that part of the game and is eager to improve in that area so her teammates know she can contribute on that end of the floor.
“I can do it,” Vivians said. “His defense is a different style from ours. We shuffled across the floor. Now we are just running with the ball, get your nose on the ball, turn the ball. I can do it. I just have to keep working on it.
“It hasn’t been scary (playing for a coach whose nickname is Secretary of Defense). I knew I was going to have to do it, and I knew what I was coming into it when I signed the scholarship.”
Vivians won’t use the fact she is a freshman as an excuse not to meet Schaefer’s high standards on defense. She also won’t hold herself back on offense because she is a freshman. If she messes up, she said she is going to keep trying and trying until she gets it right, which is all you need to know about Vivians. Numbers don’t drive her. Her focus is on being the best. It’s something she always has tried to be, and that isn’t going to change just because she is a freshman or because she is playing in what her coach calls the “biggest, baddest league” in the nation.
“I am not scared to be called on because I want to prove a point,” Vivians said. “I want to prove not only am I good at the high school level I also will be as good — or better — when I transition to college. I am ready for anything that is thrown my way.”
If you need any more proof, another round of word association might convince you.
One of the final things Vivians was asked was how she wants to be remembered at the end of her college career.
“I want somebody to remember me as one of the best players in high school,” Vivians said. “I want to be the No. 1 draft pick in the WNBA. I want to leave a mark at this school and be a legend and an icon for everybody around. I just want everybody to remember me as the girl who played basketball and who has a nice heart.
“If God willing I don’t have any injuries and nothing bizarre happens, if I just grind hard every day, work hard, do everything the coaches say, be right, be right to other people, help people that need to be helped, help myself, and work on my game, at the end of the day it will all pay off and I will get that No. 1 draft pick to go to the WNBA or go to the WNBA. … I have to work at everything. Nothing is given. You have to get what you want.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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