NCAA women ready to put on basketball show at CARSA
Mississippi State head coach Vic Schaefer doesn’t mind taking second billing to legendary Stanford mentor Tara VanDerveer. Everybody in women’s NCAA basketball is used to that by now.
VanDerveer, the secondwinningest coach in NCAA women’s hoops history and who coached the host U.S. to the Olympic gold medal at Atlanta in 1996, has earned that respect.
Stanford, No. 3 in the AP top-10 poll, and No. 10 Mississippi State headline the Greater Victoria Invitational, presented by the City of Langford, today through Saturday on Ken and Kathy Shields Court at CARSA gym on the University of Victoria campus.
“Stanford is the model. It’s the blueprint everybody looks at,” said Schaefer.
“Tara has set the standard. She is a class act and has set a level of consistency that is hard to match.”
Annual power Mississippi State hasn’t been too shabby, either, under Schaefer with four NCAA Sweet 16, three Elite Eight, two Final Four and two championship game appearances since 2012.
“Even harder to build a winning program is sustaining it,” he said.
The Greater Victoria Invitational is part of a trend in NCAA women’s and men’s basketball as teams travel to tournaments in different countries and exotic locales during the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend.
“We like to give the kids different cultural experiences and have previously been to Thanksgiving tournaments in the Bahamas, Virgin Islands and Hawaii,” said Schaefer.
Notice a trend there? Mississippi State passed on the palm trees this year. But the players and coaches don’t mind.
“Victoria is a beautiful place,” said Schaefer.
“We played Marquette on Monday in Milwaukee and it took three planes to get here but it is worth it.”
The Greater Victoria International is organized by bdG Sports of Lexington, Kentucky. It is one of four men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments the company is organizing this week, along with others in Las Vegas, Fort Myers, Florida, and the Bahamas.
It is part of a strategy for Tourism Victoria.
“We have invested deliberately in sport hosting,” said Paul Nursey, president and CEO of Tourism Victoria and Destination Greater Victoria.
Nursey pointed to basketball events such as the Greater Victoria Invitational at CARSA and the men’s FIBA Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying tournament in June at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
“Greater Victoria has a reputation for hosting sports events,” he added.
“It’s become a key anchor, and part of our core business, along with conferences.”
Hoops matters most in these Thanksgiving tournaments. So they are often loaded with highend NCAA talent.
“It’s a great opportunity to play top teams from different regions. We’re going to know a lot more about our team come Sunday [following the Victoria Invitational],” said Schaefer.
The tournament opens today with the quarter-finals with Green Bay playing Bowling Green at 11 a.m., Mississippi State meeting the University of San Francisco at 1:30 p.m., Houston playing No. 17 Syracuse at 5 p.m. and Stanford meeting Cal Baptist at 7:30 p.m.
The consolation side games Friday are at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. with the championship semifinals Friday at 5 p.m. and 7:30. Games go all day Saturday with the championship game at 7:30 p.m.