STARKVILLE — The basketball doesn’t discriminate.
While the shots look different coming from the hands of Kendra Grant or Dominique Dillingham or Blair Schaefer or Kayla Nevitt, the desired result is the same: The ball has to go through the net.
Mississippi State women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer has made that point clear to his 12 healthy players as the team continues to prepare for its exhibition game against Arkansas-Fort Smith at 2 p.m. Sunday at Humphrey Coliseum. The game, which is free to fans, will be MSU’s first official test of the preseason following a closed scrimmage against Georgia Tech in Birmingham, Alabama, and an intrasquad scrimmage last week.
Schaefer intends to use the exhibition game as another chance for everyone on the team to prove they can make shots and have a chance of earning playing time. When you play for a coach with a nickname “Secretary of Defense,” there is a lot more to getting playing time than making shots. But thanks to back-to-back top-40 recruiting classes and two years of experience in Schaefer’s system, the newcomers and the veterans assembled give MSU the most depth it has had since it last advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament in 2009-10.
Last season, MSU offered a glimpse of what Schaefer and his coaching staff are building. Buoyed by the arrival of a recruiting class that included Breanna Richardson, Dillingham, Savannah Carter, and Ketara Chapel (Chinwe Okorie redshirted), MSU went 22-14 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Picked eighth by the Southeastern Conference coaches in the league’s preseason poll, Schaefer admits his team has work to do to prove it belongs in the upper half of the conference. Still, he likes the options he has on offense simply because he has more candidates willing and capable of taking and hitting big shots.
“I think 1-14 on the team has a skill set that we need,” Schaefer said. “We don’t have limited players. I think everybody brings something to the table. That is a real challenge as a head coach trying to figure out who plays more than this one.”
The dilemma also extends to which positions Bulldogs play in. Schaefer said MSU has experimented with moving Richardson, who played at the power forward, or four position, last season to the small forward, or three, in an effort to get Chapel on the floor at the three. Freshman Victoria Vivians slides in at the shooting guard, or two, in that lineup to give MSU three players who are 6-foot-1 to go along with 6-4 Martha Alwal or 6-5 Okorie at center.
On the flip side, Schaefer said the Bulldogs also are versatile enough to go small, or smaller, with freshmen Nevitt, who is 5-10, and Blair Schaefer, who is 5-7, in the backcourt or on the wings. Both players have the shooting range to stretch defenses to the 3-point arc. They also have the creativity and the grit to take the ball to the basket and to get to the free throw line.
On a team with plenty of returning players, Nevitt and Schaefer understand how important it will be for them to make shots if they want to earn playing time this season.
“I need to be able to make use of every second I get to be on the floor, so if he puts me in to make shots, I need to make shots,” said Schaefer, a former standout at Starkville High School who is the daughter of Vic Schaefer. “Whether it is making shots or getting assists or anything like that, wither way I need to make the most of my opportunities.”
Schaefer has shown a knack for making shots in practice. With a quick release and a high motor, Schaefer hasn’t missed a beat adjusting to the style of play or the high expectations the Bulldogs plan to use this season. She feels the depth of competition on the team will help her, Nevitt, and everyone else sharp. She said it also will relieve some of the pressure on any one player to feel like they are the only shooting option, which could make things more difficult.
Nevitt, a 5-10 guard from Texas, agrees.
“I feel like it will be competition because everybody wants to play, everybody is in the same position, and we can all do the same thing: Knock down shots,” Nevitt said. “It is a little stress reliever when you know you can have somebody coming behind you that also can do the same thing you’re doing.”
Nevitt anticipates some teams will test her or Schaefer or the other younger Bulldogs because they aren’t proven commodities. She understands it might be natural to make the guards prove they can hit outside shots and prevent Alwal, the team’s leading scorer and a first-team All-SEC performer last season, from beating them. Nevitt said teams that do that this season will pay a price.
“As a whole, we weren’t as great a shooting team as I think we are this year ,” Nevitt said. “Coach Schaefer brought in more shooters and everybody has been working on the (shooting) gun. If they do sag in to help with Martha more, eventually they are going to stop because we are going to hit shots.”
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Schaefer said MSU is limited to 12 healthy players because Alwal and Carter have been out of action. He said the senior center and the senior guard didn’t play in the closed scrimmage against Georgia Tech and are expected back sooner rather than later.
“I think we are a couple of weeks out on Savannah,” Schaefer said. “I think with both of them they have been given a timeframe that is inside of the first game, but whether it happens or not, that is up to them and how they feel. We’re not in a position we have to rush them back. We’re going to give them their due diligence and allow them to fully recover because, quite frankly, I need them in January and February and not in November and December.
“Does that put a little more pressure on some of our players right now to play a little better in these early games? Absolutely. We’re playing some really good teams early. The WNIT is loaded with good teams, well-coached teams, teams in The AP Top 25 poll. We’re going to have to be ready to play.”
On Wednesday, Alwal joined South Carolina’s Tiffany Mitchell, Alaina Coates, and Aleighsa Welch, Tennessee’s Isabelle Harrison and Bashaara Graves, Texas A&M’s Courtney Walker, LSU’s Danielle Ballard, Kentucky’s Jennifer O’Neill, and Arkansas’ Jessica Jackson on the preseason All-SEC team.
Last season, Alwal was 12th in the SEC in scoring (14.9 points per game). She also was third in the league in rebounding (8.8 per game) and first in the SEC in blocked shots (2.7). Those statistics helped her earn a share of the league’s defensive player of the year award.
South Carolina, which is ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press preseason poll, was picked as the preseason favorite. Tennessee, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and LSU rounded out the top half of the league. MSU, Florida, Auburn, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, and Ole Miss rounded out the bottom half.
MSU will open the season at 8 p.m. Nov. 14 against Mercer in the opening round of the Preseason WNIT.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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