Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics
Schaefer Previews Upcoming Trip to Jackson
November 19, 2019 | Women's Basketball
by Josh Lively, Assistant Director/Communications
STARKVILLE -- Mississippi State women's basketball head coach Vic Schaefer met with the media on Tuesday afternoon following the program's first luncheon of the 2019-20 season.
Here's everything he had to say before State's game against Jackson State on Thursday.
Vic Schaefer
Opening Statement
VS: "I am excited about going to our state capital and playing down in Jackson [Mississippi] on Thursday night. I am really encouraged by our offensive output to date. Offensively, we have a lot of players who can do special things. We have seven players shooting 53 percent or better [from the field], with six over 60 percent and two over 70 percent. We are skilled offensively. We need to do work on things defensively and with rebounding. It is early, only November, so I always have to keep that in mind. Hindsight is always 20/20, and a good night's rest cures a lot of issues. I am proud of my players and where we are right now at 4-0. Again, I am excited to go to Jackson. I am really proud of Jessika Carter being the SEC Player of the Week. It is well deserved. I think people across the country, and especially in our conference, are seeing what I've been saying all along. She is a versatile player who has vastly improved. Her skill set is really hard to deal with as she can do so many things offensively and defensively. Right now, she already has 10 blocks in four games to go along with her offensive game. She has similar attributes to a former player from our league, A'ja Wilson. She is not there yet but has some of those qualities in her game and that is what makes her so special. I think we still need to see her do it night-in and night-out as well as against some size. It is encouraging to see her play at the level she is so far. Congratulations to her, and again, I think it is well deserved. She has worked really hard on her game."
Q: Can you talk about the short time it has taken Jessika Carter to get to this point?
VS: "Yeah, she's confident and knows that I'm confident in her. She's got the greenlight. There's not a shot that I don't want her to take. She's really improved her range. I think the encouraging thing around that is she's shooting 76 percent at the free throw line. I just think she's got more than a drop-step layup to her game right now, and that's really important. Again, my goal is to get her to where she can play the four. You can have a 6-foot-5 four player down there, and we can have a bigger wing presence out there. You can do some things defensively and offensively that can really create some problems for folks. I think she's added some things to her game and certainly developed some things. Again, I'm just proud of her and appreciate all of her hard work that she's put in."
Q: Regarding this "home game away from home" in Jackson, how do you feel about the games where you can take the show to the fans?
VS: "I love it. This state is so special to me, our program and all our teams here at Mississippi State. We have been to Biloxi, Jackson, trying to play in Tupelo, and now being able to go back to Jackson this year is really special. I am hopeful that we will have a big crowd down there and have people come out who cannot get up here to see us play. I enjoy that, and I appreciate the opportunity to go down there."
Q: With Jessika taking off so quickly replacing Teaira, what kind of mindset does a player have to have to replace a superstar and do so effectively?
VS: "I think first of all, you have to be a confident player and you better have a skill set to go with it. It's hard to be good if you don't have a skillset. I think she knows that I've got her back, and I'm equally as confident in her as she should be in herself. She's a different player than Teaira McCowan. Let's not get caught up too much in comparing each other's games to each other. Teaira was more of a power player. I think Jessika can be a power player, but she can also be a finesse player. For me, I'm just comparing, 'Ok, we lost this many points or rebounds at that position' and who we have at that position that can take that over. I think Jessika is doing that. We can look at some other positions that we lost and see where we're lacking in some of those, but we've picked it up in others. We're really rebounding. Chloe [Bibby] and Jessika are doing a great job, but I need some others to pick it up in rebounding. Jessika is doing a tremendous job. Again, I think a different game, style and approach has been equally effective."
Q: How much do you feel like a game like last night helps a team at this stage in the season?
VS: "We've got a great film to teach with. I could have gotten out of the press and that would have taken away some of our issues, I just didn't. Like I said, it's a great teaching film. We'll be able to go look at that and learn a lot about what we're doing, not doing, and how hard we think we're playing when we're really not. The boxing-out and rebounding piece was an issue. A lot of times, we got the rebound last night, we just weren't tough enough to hang on to it. My kids know I'm very big on toughness. All of that plays into it. I probably could have done some things from a coaching standpoint to eliminate some of that, but it's okay."
Q: Many of your players entered your program after being leading scorers at their previous program. How difficult is it to teach a prolific offensive player to play that hard on defense?
VS: "We could write a book on that. I think it's them understanding the importance of playing both ends. Your great players want to be All-American's, well you've got to play on both ends [to achieve that]. Victoria Vivians learned the importance of playing both ends here at Mississippi State and really came to appreciate the charge-taking, getting in passing lanes for steals, and helping us rebound. All of those things are defense. I think that any player understands that they're not stopping at half-court and for their teammates to play defense because they're on the offensive end. I think they understand the importance of that, and they have a sense of pride. As we get into the season and start talking about scouting reports with other teams, we tell them, 'People have scouting reports on you. What do you think it says right now?' I've basically told our team after 10 games, people are going to have a pretty good feel for what you can do, can't do, don't do and won't do. I think a player is conscientious about their game, offensive, defense, and everything. I just think it's all an emphasis thing too. In high school, you don't have enough time in the day to go over, teach, and be good at everything. Coaches have to consequently spend their time on things they think is important. Here, we spend time on everything. Obviously, defense is a part of that. I have complete confidence in all of our kids that they are going to get it, they always do. It just takes time. It's the last component to a great team, that chemistry defensively."
Q: Big picture, does Myah Taylor have the ability to be one of the better guards that you've coached?
VS: "Yeah, sure. I think she's in what would have normally been her junior year, but we were able to save that first year, which is a real blessing. I think that where you're really going to see that is when she's 22 and 23 playing against 18 and 19-year-olds. That's where you see that redshirt year really come into effect and give her a real advantage. I do think the kid is developing. I'm certainly encouraged by her. Nobody wants to develop and be better than her, she wants to be there. It's not that she doesn't want to put in the work, time, be responsible, or be held accountable. That's not it. Myah is a great kid and she's working. She's young. This is only her second year playing at this level. I think she's obviously shown us some growth here in the first month of the season. I want to see it against some 'university of's' and I think that's where we're headed right now. I think she'll be ready, I do. I've got a lot of confidence in Myah and I think she's going to be ready."
STARKVILLE -- Mississippi State women's basketball head coach Vic Schaefer met with the media on Tuesday afternoon following the program's first luncheon of the 2019-20 season.
Here's everything he had to say before State's game against Jackson State on Thursday.
Vic Schaefer
Opening Statement
VS: "I am excited about going to our state capital and playing down in Jackson [Mississippi] on Thursday night. I am really encouraged by our offensive output to date. Offensively, we have a lot of players who can do special things. We have seven players shooting 53 percent or better [from the field], with six over 60 percent and two over 70 percent. We are skilled offensively. We need to do work on things defensively and with rebounding. It is early, only November, so I always have to keep that in mind. Hindsight is always 20/20, and a good night's rest cures a lot of issues. I am proud of my players and where we are right now at 4-0. Again, I am excited to go to Jackson. I am really proud of Jessika Carter being the SEC Player of the Week. It is well deserved. I think people across the country, and especially in our conference, are seeing what I've been saying all along. She is a versatile player who has vastly improved. Her skill set is really hard to deal with as she can do so many things offensively and defensively. Right now, she already has 10 blocks in four games to go along with her offensive game. She has similar attributes to a former player from our league, A'ja Wilson. She is not there yet but has some of those qualities in her game and that is what makes her so special. I think we still need to see her do it night-in and night-out as well as against some size. It is encouraging to see her play at the level she is so far. Congratulations to her, and again, I think it is well deserved. She has worked really hard on her game."
Q: Can you talk about the short time it has taken Jessika Carter to get to this point?
VS: "Yeah, she's confident and knows that I'm confident in her. She's got the greenlight. There's not a shot that I don't want her to take. She's really improved her range. I think the encouraging thing around that is she's shooting 76 percent at the free throw line. I just think she's got more than a drop-step layup to her game right now, and that's really important. Again, my goal is to get her to where she can play the four. You can have a 6-foot-5 four player down there, and we can have a bigger wing presence out there. You can do some things defensively and offensively that can really create some problems for folks. I think she's added some things to her game and certainly developed some things. Again, I'm just proud of her and appreciate all of her hard work that she's put in."
Q: Regarding this "home game away from home" in Jackson, how do you feel about the games where you can take the show to the fans?
VS: "I love it. This state is so special to me, our program and all our teams here at Mississippi State. We have been to Biloxi, Jackson, trying to play in Tupelo, and now being able to go back to Jackson this year is really special. I am hopeful that we will have a big crowd down there and have people come out who cannot get up here to see us play. I enjoy that, and I appreciate the opportunity to go down there."
Q: With Jessika taking off so quickly replacing Teaira, what kind of mindset does a player have to have to replace a superstar and do so effectively?
VS: "I think first of all, you have to be a confident player and you better have a skill set to go with it. It's hard to be good if you don't have a skillset. I think she knows that I've got her back, and I'm equally as confident in her as she should be in herself. She's a different player than Teaira McCowan. Let's not get caught up too much in comparing each other's games to each other. Teaira was more of a power player. I think Jessika can be a power player, but she can also be a finesse player. For me, I'm just comparing, 'Ok, we lost this many points or rebounds at that position' and who we have at that position that can take that over. I think Jessika is doing that. We can look at some other positions that we lost and see where we're lacking in some of those, but we've picked it up in others. We're really rebounding. Chloe [Bibby] and Jessika are doing a great job, but I need some others to pick it up in rebounding. Jessika is doing a tremendous job. Again, I think a different game, style and approach has been equally effective."
Q: How much do you feel like a game like last night helps a team at this stage in the season?
VS: "We've got a great film to teach with. I could have gotten out of the press and that would have taken away some of our issues, I just didn't. Like I said, it's a great teaching film. We'll be able to go look at that and learn a lot about what we're doing, not doing, and how hard we think we're playing when we're really not. The boxing-out and rebounding piece was an issue. A lot of times, we got the rebound last night, we just weren't tough enough to hang on to it. My kids know I'm very big on toughness. All of that plays into it. I probably could have done some things from a coaching standpoint to eliminate some of that, but it's okay."
Q: Many of your players entered your program after being leading scorers at their previous program. How difficult is it to teach a prolific offensive player to play that hard on defense?
VS: "We could write a book on that. I think it's them understanding the importance of playing both ends. Your great players want to be All-American's, well you've got to play on both ends [to achieve that]. Victoria Vivians learned the importance of playing both ends here at Mississippi State and really came to appreciate the charge-taking, getting in passing lanes for steals, and helping us rebound. All of those things are defense. I think that any player understands that they're not stopping at half-court and for their teammates to play defense because they're on the offensive end. I think they understand the importance of that, and they have a sense of pride. As we get into the season and start talking about scouting reports with other teams, we tell them, 'People have scouting reports on you. What do you think it says right now?' I've basically told our team after 10 games, people are going to have a pretty good feel for what you can do, can't do, don't do and won't do. I think a player is conscientious about their game, offensive, defense, and everything. I just think it's all an emphasis thing too. In high school, you don't have enough time in the day to go over, teach, and be good at everything. Coaches have to consequently spend their time on things they think is important. Here, we spend time on everything. Obviously, defense is a part of that. I have complete confidence in all of our kids that they are going to get it, they always do. It just takes time. It's the last component to a great team, that chemistry defensively."
Q: Big picture, does Myah Taylor have the ability to be one of the better guards that you've coached?
VS: "Yeah, sure. I think she's in what would have normally been her junior year, but we were able to save that first year, which is a real blessing. I think that where you're really going to see that is when she's 22 and 23 playing against 18 and 19-year-olds. That's where you see that redshirt year really come into effect and give her a real advantage. I do think the kid is developing. I'm certainly encouraged by her. Nobody wants to develop and be better than her, she wants to be there. It's not that she doesn't want to put in the work, time, be responsible, or be held accountable. That's not it. Myah is a great kid and she's working. She's young. This is only her second year playing at this level. I think she's obviously shown us some growth here in the first month of the season. I want to see it against some 'university of's' and I think that's where we're headed right now. I think she'll be ready, I do. I've got a lot of confidence in Myah and I think she's going to be ready."
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Basketball
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