Vic Schaefer and Mike Neighbors think they know a lot about their teams midway through the 2018-19 campaign.
The second phase of the marathon, which is otherwise known as the Southeastern Conference regular season, will affirm or shatter some of the notions Schaefer and Neighbors developed in non-conference play. That marathon will kick off at 6 p.m. Thursday (SEC Network) when the No. 7 Mississippi State women’s basketball team takes on Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. All 14 league teams will open SEC play Thursday.
MSU is coming off a 104-36 victory against Louisiana on Sunday at Humphrey Coliseum. There likely won’t be many breathers like that one the rest of the way for the Bulldogs, the SEC’s reigning regular-season champion. That’s why Schaefer said Tuesday he is “curious” to see how good his team can become and what it will be able to do.
“I just think we’re a work in progress,” Schaefer said. “We have a lot of room to grow.”
Schaefer said he isn’t satisfied where the Bulldogs (12-1) are despite their status as the SEC’s highest-ranked team. He said the Bulldogs have so many areas they can improve in and grow in, and that they’re not all focused on skills. Schaefer said MSU also has to polish its mental approach and its toughness.
“I think we’re really skilled,” Schaefer said. “I just think there are some tangibles that we have a lot of way to go in.”
MSU has offered glimpses of its potential in a victory at then-No. 10 Texas and in a home victory against then-No. 18 Marquette. MSU also showed it is capable of matching up with a top-five program like Oregon, even though it suffered its only loss in an 82-74 setback on Dec. 18. Oregon was ranked No. 7 at the time of the game. The Ducks have climbed to No. 5 in The Associated Press Top 25.
Schaefer lamented his team’s inability to get a defensive stop against Oregon. He also wasn’t pleased with the fact he thought Oregon was “tougher” than his team on that night.
“I think the common thread is we probably competed in all of them (games against Texas, Marquette, and Oregon) and the thing that we’re missing is the consistency piece,” Schaefer said.
Arkansas (11-3) likely will test MSU’s consistency with an up-tempo attack that involves a lot of 3-pointers. The Razorbacks have attempted only 59 more shots from the field than the Bulldogs, but Oklahoma transfer Chelsea Dungee and former Jones College standout Alexis Tolefree have attempted 74 and 121 3-pointers, respectively. Chloe Bibby (58) has attempted the most 3-pointers for the Bulldogs.
Neighbors, who is in his second season at Arkansas after building Washington into a national power, said his team is “10-15 points better” than it was last season, when he led the team to a 13-18 (3-13 SEC) mark in 2017-18. He credited the Razorbacks’ improvement to the fact they have more shooters and that they are a little deeper. He also said his team’s ability to have four point guards on the court at the same time enables it to share the basketball and to take care of it. The flip side, he said, is Arkansas doesn’t have a lot of size, which could present problems when you go against an opponent with a 6-foot-7 senior center like Teaira McCowan and a 5-11 rebounding wizard like Anriel Howard.
Still, Neighbors hopes his team’s style of play, which is fueled by senior guard Malica Monk, one of the league’s fastest players, wears on opponents, especially in the third and fourth quarters.
“I think it is a compounding effect where teams start to lose their legs a little bit and turn over the basketball or they may miss shots they made in the first half,” Neighbors said. “We do have to do some different things. Opponents also have to do some different things against us, like using a post player to guard a guard. As hard as it is to play Mississippi State, we have to be as hard for them to guard.”
Given Arkansas’ desire to play quickly, the game could turn into a track meet. Last season, MSU beat Arkansas 111-69 in Starkville. This season, MSU is averaging 92.6 points per game and is shooting 52.1 percent from the field. Arkansas is averaging 74.6 ppg. and is shooting 38.6 from the field.
Neighbors doesn’t shy away from the fact that the Razorbacks are going to push tempo and shoot quickly. He joked that they often will shoot the ball fast so they don’t have time to turn it over. Still, with added confidence from a strong showing against a non-conference slate that includes losses to Arizona State and Iowa State and victories against Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Tulsa, Neighbors feels Arkansas is on the right track.
“We gave Malica Monk her 1,000th point ball and she smiled and gave me a big hug and said, ‘Before you got here I dreamed of scoring 500 points,” Neighbors said. “If you’re a kid who can score we’re going to let you go. … I think recruits and players in our system feel confident they have earned the right to (shoot) and are allowed to go play.”
An opponent with a mind-set and as many as four players with the green light to shoot it at any time presents a unique challenge for Schaefer and the Bulldogs.
“They do want to shoot it a lot,” Schaefer said. “They obviously average 25 threes a game and he has kids who can shoot it now. The challenge for us in transition is to find the shooters. … They’re not much different (than last season), but they have better personnel, better shooters. Monk is a veteran and she is a heck of a player, and those kids on the perimeter are all shooters.
“They’re not going to turn it over. They’re going to make good decisions and they’re going to get a shot. You’re going to have to guard them and rebound it because they’re going to get a good shot. I think what they do is a great job of getting the shot they want.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.