COLUMBUS, Ohio — Vic Schaefer was miserable Thursday morning.
The Mississippi State women’s basketball coach can blame Dominique Dillingham and the rest of the White team for making him feel lousy after a two-hour practice.
Dillingham played the role of Louisville All-American Asia Durr in MSU’s practice from 9-11 a.m. She and the rest of the Bulldogs did such a good job simulating what the Cardinals will run that Schaefer wasn’t happy.
“They kicked our butt,” Schaefer said. “I hope that is not an omen.”
Schaefer will see how well his White team has prepared MSU (36-1) when it squares off against Louisville at 6 tonight (ESPN2) in the national semifinals at Nationwide Arena. Connecticut (36-0) and Notre Dame (33-3) will meet in the other semifinal at approximately 8:30 p.m. (ESPN2). The winners will meet at 6 p.m. Sunday (ESPN) to determine the national champion.
As lousy as the White team players made him feel, Schaefer has reason to be optimistic. He said his practice teams have routinely played well against the starters. When they have “kicked our butts” like Thursday morning, Schaefer said the Bulldogs have played well the next day.
Schaefer hopes that is the case because he said former MSU standout and current graduate assistant coach Dominique Dillingham played the role of Durr on Thursday morning and “dominated.”
“She was an All-American today,” Schaefer said of Dillingham.
That might be a good thing for the Bulldogs because Durr has earned Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year honors to go with her first-team All-America accolades from four organizations. The 5-foot-10 guard leads Louisville (36-2) in scoring at 18.7 points per game.
“She is a great player,” Schaefer said. “She creates her own shot. She creates shots for others. They’re two four and fives are interesting matchups for us. That is an area of concern for me as well. They don’t have a true back-to-the-basket five player on their team, but boy they can face up and bother you.”
MSU associate head coach Johnnie Harris was responsible for the team’s scouting report for Louisville. She said the Cardinals are fast, really athletic, and have an “amazing” two guard in Durr. She also called Hines-Allen, a 6-2 senior forward, ” a monster” in the post. As a sophomore, Hines-Allen was the Blue Ribbon Panel ACC Player of the Year. Last season, Hines-Allen averaged 13.9 points and 9.3 rebounds. This season, Hines-Allen is second on the team in scoring (14.1 ppg.) and leads the team in rebounding (9.7).
“They have really good role players around them, and they like to push the ball,” Harris said. “They run a lot of sets, too, but they like to push the ball and score quick. They run a lot of ball-screen action. They are a tough, physical, really smart basketball team.”
If you have heard other coaches use those same words to describe MSU, you’re right.
“That sounds a lot like us,” Harris said.
Harris said it is hard to prepare for a team that has so many similarities to the Bulldogs. She said a key has been getting the White team to give its best effort to compete as hard as possible to push the starters to prepare them as much as possible.
Harris credited Zion Campbell, Jonika Garvin, Dillingham, Jordan Danberry, Nyah Tate, Bre’Amber Scott, and Myah Taylor for their work in getting the starters ready for the Cardinals.
“I thought they did a really good job,” Harris said. “I thought they did a good job of not only scoring but I thought they did a good job of getting up (on defense) and helping down with Teaira and pushing her around and being physical with her and preparing her for that.”
William agreed and said the White team made the Maroon team turn the ball over, which led it to get in trouble with coach Schaefer.
William said the Bulldogs will have to work to get open and can’t be lackadaisical with their passes. She said the White team exploited that a little bit Thursday morning, so she hopes the practice will get the Bulldogs in the right frame of mind.
“I feel like those first five minutes we can’t be comfortable,” William said. “We have to go out there energetic and be ready. We know how we go out there and guard people and dominate them in their sets, so we’re going to have to work extra hard.”
With all of the similarities to discuss, coach Schaefer said McCowan is the biggest difference. At 6-7, McCowan will be the tallest player on the court by several inches. Other than that, he said he and Louisville coach Jeff Walz could “flip flop and coach each other’s group” and not have things be too different.
“They’re extremely multi-dimensional, multi-talented, can do a lot of things to hurt you,” Schaefer said. “Offensively and defensively, they’re a mirror image. … They’re tough, they’re physical, aggressive, so it’s a team that’s a lot like mine on that end of the floor. We’ve got out work cut out for us. We are really focused on them. I do believe we’ve had a good three days of practice, and we’ll see how it goes (tonight).”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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