Bulldogs look to keep SEC crown to 'selves with win over Aggies
Making history is becoming commonplace in Starkville for coach Vic Schaefer and his Mississippi State women's basketball squad, which wrote another story into the record books on Thursday night.
In another convincing Southeastern Conference victory, the Bulldogs waltzed into Nashville with a predominately maroonclad crowd and smashed the Vanderbilt Commodores 95-50 on their home court. The win sealed the Bulldogs (27-0, 13-0 SEC) to at least a share of the SEC Championship and the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament coming up in that same city at the end of the month.
It also marked even more progress made by Schaefer's bunch who needed just one win in the final two games a year ago to earn the same feat and came up short.
Kentucky and Tennessee made sure that State was without a championship ring and the carrot, as Schaefer calls it, was left dangling.
“We didn't go take it," Schaefer said. "Those teams played harder than us. I think we've learned from that. This is a different team, but they were a part of that team last year. I think they understand the importance of, ‘hey, let's go out and make it happen.'”
This bunch of Bulldogs and their coach are selfish. While Thursday clinched a share of the conference championship and that No. 1 seed in the tournament, they want it all to themselves and that comes with one more win.
Up next for State is the No. 17 Texas A&M Aggies (20-7, 9-4) today, a team that Schaefer knows plenty about having coached under Gary Blair from 2003-11 and for nearly 15 years total.
MSU has won three-straight in the series with Texas A&M and Schaefer is 4-3 against his former boss. Two of those losses came in the first two seasons for Schaefer in Starkville and they were blowouts. Schaefer quickly turned things around in the series and has gotten the leg up on his mentor.
“It's always odd when we play each other because I was on the same bench for 15 years," Schaefer said. "It's a different feeling when we're both competing. (Today), it just happens to fall where it falls and I'm not going to prepare any different for this one. We prepare every game like it's for the national championship.”
The next-team-up mentality has been a theme for this year's Bulldogs, who haven't seemed to get too far up or down for any single opponent. They've been one of the most dominating teams in the country this season averaging 28.8 points per game difference with their opponents and they own the nation's longest winning streak.
Even Schaefer's daughter, Blair, doesn't feel there is much of a motivation in this weekend's game outside of winning a 14th-straight SEC contest.
“It's just the next team up,” Blair said. “All of the teams in the SEC have great guards and great
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