STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State women’s basketball team will play nine games at Humphrey Coliseum and another game at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson as part of its 2017-18 non-conference schedule.
The 15-game, pre-Southeastern Conference slate includes nine teams that earned postseason berths last season. Four of those teams advanced to the NCAA tournament, including an Oregon squad that will visit Starkville on Dec. 13. The Ducks advanced to the Elite Eight.
“I know how challenging it is,” MSU sixth-year head coach Vic Schaefer said of the pre-conference slate. “We have tried to make our schedule more demanding each year. All of the road games we had last year were imperative for helping us get ready for the Southeastern Conference. This year we added quite a bit more from a strength-of-schedule standpoint, and even though we are playing them at home, we have some very difficult games.
“I am eager to see how our preparation is for those games. We lost four very valuable seniors from last year, and I’m eager to see how this year’s senior class steps up to fill the void and leads this team. We are going to need great leadership if we are going to be prepared for this kind of schedule.”
Coming off a historic run to the national championship game in the program’s first Final Four appearance, the 2017-18 squad will take the court for the first time Nov. 3 in an exhibition against former Bulldog assistant coach Elena Lovato’s Arkansas-Fort Smith squad.
MSU will open the campaign against Virginia on Nov. 10 as part of a doubleheader with the men’s team. Tickets for the doubleheader are $20 and are available for purchase at www.hailstate.com/tickets.
Virginia advanced to the second round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament last season.
The game also will feature a Final Four banner raising to celebrate MSU’s record-setting 2016-17 campaign that saw it defeat four-time reigning national champion Connecticut to halt the Huskies’ record 111-game winning streak.
“That opening game against Virginia is exciting and concerning,” Schaefer said. “Virginia was one of the first teams out of the NCAA tournament last year. They are a well-coached and talented team from a great basketball conference in the ACC. We will find out a lot about our basketball team right away.”
MSU will complete a season-opening homestand against Georgia State on Nov. 16 and Southern Miss on Nov. 19.
MSU will compete in the Cancun Challenge on Nov. 23-25 in Mexico. It will face NCAA tournament participants Arizona State and Green Bay, along with Columbia.
MSU’s next game in the Magnolia State will be Nov. 29 against Louisiana-Lafayette. It will be the program’s first game at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson since 2006.
“Playing in our state capital is something that was very important to us,” Schaefer said. “Our state is excited about our program, and it is proud of what we accomplished a year ago. This gives us a chance for our team to play in front of our great Bulldogs in our state capital, and it is also an opportunity for Victoria (Vivians) to be able to play in the Mississippi Coliseum for the first time since winning a state championship with Scott Central (High School). We wanted to give our fans who might not be able to make it to Starkville during the season an opportunity to see our program.”
MSU will return to Starkville to open a four-game stretch in the Hump against Oklahoma State in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
MSU will break for final exams before returning to the court Dec. 10 against Little Rock.
The Dec. 13 game against Oregon is a rematch of last season’s Rainbow Wahine Challenge opener, a game MSU won 75-63 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Oregon returns all five starters from that squad that ended the year with a setback to UConn in the Elite Eight.
“Oregon is a well-coached team under Kelly Graves, and they have everyone back from last year’s team as well as a top-10 recruiting class,” Schaefer said. “We played them last season in Hawaii on a neutral floor and had a knock-down, drag-out. They are going to be picked to not only compete for a Pac-12 championship, but a national championship as well.”
Schaefer’s squad will play host to Maine on Dec. 17 before heading to Las Vegas for the Duel in the Desert on Dec. 20-21. MSU will open against host UNLV before wrapping the pre-Christmas slate with a matchup against 2016 national finalist Syracuse.
MSU’s final tuneup for SEC play will be Dec. 28 against Mississippi Valley State in Starkville.
Times and television dates, along with the SEC schedule, will be announced later.
Season tickets for the Humphrey Coliseum slate go on sale to the general public Sept. 5 and cost $120 for reserved seats and $60 for general admission.
Tickets for the opening doubleheader and Jackson game are being sold separately.
n Small to serve as video coordinator for Ole Miss; At Oxford, Ole Miss coach Matt Insell announced the addition of Garner Small to the women’s basketball staff on Friday. Small will serve in the role of video coordinator.
“Garner has great experience in the game of basketball both as a player and as a coach, and I feel he will be a major part of our growth as we move forward,” Insell said. “Our backgrounds are very similar, and I am thrilled about him joining the Ole Miss women’s basketball program”
Small comes to Oxford after serving as an assistant coach at Clarendon College in Texas for the 2016-17 season. Prior to that, Small spent time as a graduate assistant and video coordinator at Tennessee-Martin and at his alma mater, Olivet College.
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