It was just a tick or two after 4 p.m. and even as the last few dozen people squeezed into the remaining seats in Humphrey Coliseum, the Mississippi State women’s basketball team controlled the tip. Point guard Morgan William dribbled to the left of the key and floated a pass over the defense to Victoria Vivians, who had slipped a screen and was flying toward the basket for a layup and a 2-0 lead against Tennessee.
Everyone agreed this was how the afternoon was supposed to go.
Let’s hit the pause button at this point and consider the script planned for this day.
This wasn’t just another game, the last of 30 on the regular-season schedule. And while it was Senior Day, which allowed the Bulldogs and their fans to celebrate the contributions of four players who have meant so much to the program, there was nothing unique about it because every team honors its seniors before its last home game.
No, there were other, bigger boxes to check Sunday. A win would help the 2016-17 squad tie last year’s team for the most victories in a season. As you will recall, last season’s group won 28 games thanks to four victories in the postseason.
It also was supposed to be the day MSU ran the table at Humphrey Coliseum with a 11-0 home record, another first. The win would surely cement No. 3 MSU’s status as one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, which begins in two weeks.
Finally, perhaps most importantly, the win would assure MSU of a share of the Southeastern Conference title, a first not only for the women’s basketball, but also the first time a MSU women’s team in any sport had won a league crown.
There was some talk MSU was going to break the women’s single-game attendance record (10,626), but even though that effort came up just short – 10,500 – the second-largest crowd in history turned out with expectations set in their minds.
This wasn’t supposed to be a game. It was supposed to be a celebration.
Even the opponent seemed hand-picked for the occasion. Tennessee, with its eight national championships and 17 SEC titles, is a gold standard for the women’s game and in the SEC and, as such, was the perfect foe to celebrate a symbolic changing of the guard. But this wasn’t one of the Lady Volunteers’ championship teams. This time, unranked Tennessee, with 10 regular-season losses, was cast in a role not unlike the losing army in a Civil War re-enactment, expected to put up a good show, but ultimately fall, clutching their chests with dramatic flourishes as they collapsed, vanquished to the virgin soil.
Yes, this was supposed to have been a carefully crafted coronation.
We return now to the game. Vivians had just swept through the paint for an easy basket and a 2-0 lead eight seconds into the game.
The next 39 minutes, 52 seconds were nothing like what had been planned or expected.
Tennessee tied the game a half-minute later, took the lead soon after, and kept building it as the fans fidgeted uncomfortably in their seats. By the end of the first quarter, Tennessee led by 10. The Lady Volunteers led by 16 at halftime and by 14 entering the fourth quarter as the fans waited for a comeback that never materialized.
MSU whittled the deficit to 10 midway through the final quarter, but Tennessee scored the next six points and the rest of the game was more of matter of determining how bad it would be. Tennessee led by 23 and finished with an 18-point win.
MSU had lost its third game of the season, and its second in a row.
But this loss was unlike narrow road defeats to No. 7 South Carolina and No. 22 Kentucky. This was a beatdown, plain and simple.
There are no perfect teams, aside from Connecticut, which hasn’t lost a game since the Paleozoic Era. MSU hasn’t be perfect, either, despite all its success. There have been times when the Bulldogs have shot the ball poorly or turned it over too often, and times when foul trouble posed problems.
But until Sunday, the one thing the Bulldogs could confidently rely on was their defense. Game in and game out, MSU guards people, relentlessly, unmercifully — until Sunday.
When Tennessee wasn’t raining down uncontested 3-pointers, the Lady Volunteers simply drove to the basket unimpeded, scoring 24 points in the paint. The Vols made 54.7 percent of their shots, which had been unimaginable against a MSU defense.
It was a stunning development, as if you went to a Southern grandma’s house for Sunday dinner only to discover she had mysteriously forgotten how to fry chicken.
“I’m extremely disappointed, personally,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “I feel a tremendous disappointment in how my team played today.”
MSU need not dwell on the game, disappointing as it was. For the most part, all of the goals MSU hoped to achieve Sunday still remain. The Bulldogs are the No. 2 seed in this week’s SEC tournament, so they could still pick up a SEC title, which also would be a first for the program. They still can secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, although they likely will have to win the tournament or benefit from other top-ranked teams losing. They still can tie or break a school record for wins.
But one thing has changed. When MSU takes the court Friday against the winner of the LSU-Ole Miss game in the SEC tournament, winning won’t be a formality.
Maybe that’s the way it is really supposed to be.
The crown always comes before the coronation.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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