Schaefer, Holmes, McCowan Head To #SECTipoff Thursday
October 17, 2018 | Women's Basketball
By Brock Turnipseed, Associate Director/Communications
STARKVILLE – Seniors Jazzmun Holmes and Teaira McCowan will head to Birmingham, Alabama, on Thursday with head coach Vic Schaefer for SEC Tipoff '19.
The Bulldog veterans and Schaefer, the reigning SEC and Naismith Coach of the Year, will run through the various media stops at the Grand Bohemian Hotel from 3:15-5:05 p.m. CT.
The afternoon will include interviews with ESPN, Sirius/XM and local, regional and national print media. The trio will also be live on The Finebaum Show with Peter Burns, Alyssa Lang, Nell Fortner, Andy Landers and Debbie Antonelli from 4:05-4:20 p.m.
Schaefer's Bulldogs were tabbed by select SEC and national media members to repeat as the league champion. Last season, MSU won 37 games, second-most in SEC history, and captured the program's first conference crown en route to advancing to the national championship game for the second-straight year.
On Tuesday, media selected McCowan as the preseason player of the year following a junior campaign that saw her be named an All-American and the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year.
The Brenham, Texas, native averaged 18.2 ppg and an SEC-leading 13.9 rpg. She set conference season records with 544 rebounds and 29 double-doubles, and her rebounding total finished second in NCAA Division I season history.
Holmes takes over at the point after averaging 14.8 mpg and earning the team's Sixth Player of the Year Award last season. The Gulfport, Mississippi, native finished second on team in assists a year ago with 105 (2.7 apg).
Holmes also ranked third on last season's team in steals with 45, and she had one of the best assist/turnover ratios in the conference with a 2.8 tally for the year and a 2.7 mark in SEC contests.
The back-to-back national finalist Bulldogs host NCAA Division II National Champion Central Missouri in a 6 p.m. exhibition on Nov. 2. The Bulldogs officially open the 2018-19 campaign in The Hump Nov. 6 against Southeast Missouri State.
General admission upper level season tickets can still be purchased online at www.hailstate.com/tickets or by calling the MSU Ticket Office at 1-888-GO-DAWGS.
