STARKVILLE — Jerica James has appreciated the meaning of the word responsibility ever since she was a freshman.
Now in her third season under coach Vic Schaefer and his coaching staff, James has a greater grasp of what it means to be a leader and how she is expected to set the tone for the teammates.
“Coach has always said the win is my greatest stat,” James said.
This season, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team is expected to look to James to provide the same spark she brought off the bench to the starting lineup. James also will be counted on to deliver on-the-job training and advice to freshman Morgan William, the Bulldogs’ other true point guard, in a season filled with expectations.
James’ ability to step into a bigger role and to offer counseling to William will be one of the keys if MSU is going to capitalize on the momentum from last season, when it went 22-14 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. The return of four starters, the presence of 6-foot-5 sophomore center Chine Okorie, who sat out last season due to NCAA eligibility issues, and the addition of a nationally ranked recruiting class add to the heightened expectations for MSU in Schaefer’s third season as head coach in Starkville.
Schaefer said MSU will “embrace” those expectations in part because it won’t be able to sneak up on anyone nationally or in the Southeastern Conference. He hopes James, who he called “the most improved player in the program,” will play a key role in pushing MSU into the upper echelon of the SEC, and, possibly, back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2009-10 season.
James, a 5-foot-5 senior from North Little Rock, Arkansas, averaged 16.9 minutes in 34 games last season. She teamed with Katia May to form a dependable point guard duo that combined to hand for 271 assists and 168 turnovers. That ratio wasn’t quite the 2-to-1 ratio coaches hope their point guards can reach, but it was a sharp improvement from the 157 assists and 197 turnovers James and May combined for in 2012-13.
James also showed a penchant for hitting big shots. Even though she only averaged 5.2 points per game, she was second on the team in 3-pointers (26) and shot better from beyond the arc (35.6 percent) than she did on all field goals (34.5 percent). She had two key 3-pointers and matched a career-high with four steals in an upset of Vanderbilt. She also had five assists and seven points in a season-high 33 minutes in an overtime victory against Ole Miss and a clutch 3-pointer in overtime that helped MSU oust Southern Mississippi in the second round of the WNIT.
“She played a major role in our success last year,” Schaefer said. “As the senior point guard, I have a lot of expectations for her as far as being a leader and how to run the team. I expect her to show our freshman point guard, Morgan William, the ropes and teach her the way.”
James knows she could be expected to deliver more big shots, especially if defenses try to shut down some of MSU’s other weapons, like All-SEC performer Martha Alwal, senior guard Kendra Grant, sophomore Breanna Richardson, or any of the Bulldogs’ talented freshman class.
James said she worked hard in the offseason to make sure she was in the best shape possible to handle the mental and physical rigors she anticipates she will face this season. She felt she was able to keep the team calm and organized last season and hopes she will be able to do the same thing this year. She looks forward to keeping herself motivated so she can help set the tone with the defensive spark Schaefer wants to see from his point guards.
“When I saw them saying I was a spark last year, I think it was more my spirit on the court,” James said. “The girls really respect when I am out on the court. It falls back to the leadership. They know when I am on the court, ‘Let’s get it done.’ It’s not that any other point guard couldn’t step up here and do the same thing, but I think it is just my spirt. They always hear my voice in practice and it is good to hear me in the games. Starting off the games, hopefully we can have that spark from the jump.”
James is confident she can provide that spark from 3-point range. She said she has been working on a mid-range game she hopes will add another dimension to MSU’s offense, especially since the Bulldogs have even more scoring options defenses will have to consider. If they forget about James or count her as a fourth or fifth choice on their scouting reports, that’s fine with her. The way James sees it, that is just another challenge for her to take on. It’s one she will embrace responsibly as a leader who knows her individual stats won’t be as important as the outcome of the game.
“We have a talented group of girls,” James said. “If you don’t pay attention to them, they will be your problem. If I was the other team, I would much rather pay attention to the three girls on the perimeter or the girls inside the paint who are going to damage than the point guard. That will open up things for me, so, hopefully, we will have five girls on the court that you have to worry about instead of just one or two.
“What point guard doesn’t like a challenge. That is fine with me (if defenses force her to prove she can hit open shots). I have seen it all and I am experienced enough to know that that is what I am going to do. Knocking down shots won’t be a problem. I will continue to do so.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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