DALLAS — John Cohen knows what it is like to play for a national championship.
As Mississippi State baseball coach in 2013, Cohen led the Bulldogs to 51 victories and a spot in the championship series of the College World Series.
Since that time, Cohen has had a chance to watch Vic Schaefer build the MSU women’s basketball team. From 22 to 27 to 28, Schaefer’s Bulldogs have used grass roots efforts off the court and tenacious and gutsy efforts on the court to build an impressive following.
On Friday, MSU earned the biggest victory in program history when it defeated four-time reigning national champion Connecticut 66-64 in overtime in the national semifinals at American Airlines Center.
The win pushed MSU (34-4) into its first national title game. It will play Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina (32-4), which defeated Stanford 62-53 in the first national semifinal, at 5 p.m. today (ESPN).
Cohen, who has been MSU’s director of athletics since Nov. 4 2016, has watched Schaefer’s Bulldogs practice over Christmas and Thanksgiving and knows how hard the players and the coaches have worked and how much they have invested to help the program reach these heights.
“I think Vic and his staff just do an incredible job of making the games easy and practice is pretty dadgum difficult,” Cohen said. “This is not a shock to me. Obviously beating a team that won 111 games in a row it takes you a little aback, but I am not shocked by anything these kids do because everything they do is for each other.
“If you do that long enough, things like this are going to happen.”
This season, MSU has raised the bar with a program-record 34 wins and their first trips to the Elite Eight, Final Four, and national title game. Cohen said he has been impressed how the MSU women’s basketball team works with fans to build relationships. He said that relationship between the fans and the players “is pretty remarkable.” He said it is special when you have players playing for each other and a leader like Morgan William, who again took the team on her back.
“She has been capable of doing anything, but the strength of this team is that eight to 10 kids have had a remarkable moment like that during the course of the year,” Cohen said. “It was Morgan’s turn. She didn’t score 41 points (like she did against Baylor in the Elite Eight), but she wanted the basketball in her hands. That is one of the strengths of coach Schaefer. When he looks in those kids’ eyes, he knows who is feeling it, who wants the ball in their hands, and he makes really good decisions with personnel. None of this surprised me because I have seen how much work they put into the preparation.”
All SEC title game
This will be the first time two teams from the same conference will play each other for the national title since 2013, when Connecticut played Louisville in a matchup of Big East Conference rivals.
The last time two SEC schools played for the national title was 1996, when Tennessee beat Georgia 83-65.
Overtime magic/disappointment
MSU is 3-1 in overtime games this season, including 2-0 this season.
MSU’s win against UConn comes on the heels of a 94-85 overtime victory against Baylor in the Elite Eight. It is the first time in the NCAA women’s tournament a team has won back-to-back overtime games.
Maryland won two overtime games in a span of three games in 2006. California did the same thing in 2013.
UConn is 0-4 in overtime games in the NCAA tournament.
Notable numbers
MSU led UConn 22-13 after one quarter. It is the first time UConn has trailed after one quarter since it trailed 17-15 against Texas on Dec. 4, 2016.
The nine-point deficit was the largest the Huskies had faced in the NCAA tournament.
That changed in the second quarter, when MSU went on a 14-0 run to build its lead to 29-13. The deficit was the Huskies’ biggest of the season. Its previous largest deficit was seven points against UCLA in the regional semifinals.
UConn was outscored in a half for only the 24th time in the last 453 halves. The last time UConn trailed at halftime in the Final Four was 2010 against Stanford (20-12) in San Antonio. They went on to win 53-47.
This and that
UConn was outrebounded (37-31) for the fifth time this season. … This is the first time since 2011 that both national semifinals were decided by single digits. … With two 3-pointers, UConn’s Kia Nurse set a record for most 3-pointers made by a player in a NCAA tournament (22). … UConn shot 55.8 percent (162-for-290) from the field in the NCAA tournament. … UConn had more turnovers than its opponent (17 to 14) for just the seventh time this season. … The Huskies complete the season without an opponent having a better field goal shooting percentage in a game. … MSU is the only team this season to match UConn in assists. Both teams had 11 Friday. … MSU has school record of 2,906 points and 566 assists.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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