Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: League Opens NCAAs Going 4-4

By Mike Siroky

The best conference in women’s basketball, the Southeastern, put four of its seven teams in play on the first day of the 38th annual NCAA eliminations, including all three home teams.

Top seed Mississippi State and four seeds South Carolina and Texas A&M all won at home. Missouri, a seven, also won, in overtime.

 

Mississippi State (31-2) 103, Southern University (20-3) 46

Mississippi State, No. 1 seed in the eventual Portland Regional, started with Southern University.

 In all-time NCAA tournaments, only one top seed has lost a first round in 100 games and that was a very flawed top seed.

Them ’Dawgs is not flawed, especially in StarkVegas where school records are much more impressive in a much tougher American footprint.

They had placed themselves fourth in the final national poll.

They looked every bit a top seed in their 31st win, 15-1 at home. Southern finished 7-9 away from campus.

The Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring margin (28.3) and have the No. 2 scoring offense (86.1). 

They top the SEC in field goal percentage (49.2), assist/turnover ratio (1.3), assists (16.6), rebound margin (12.9) and offensive rebounding (17.3).

The comparison is staggering. The Jaguars average 60.6 points per game and allow 60.3. They did not need even a Friday night hotel reservation.

And, of course, State leads off with everyone’s All-American center, Teaira McCowan to settle every inside argument. 

Notre Dame coach Muffett McGraw took a break at her national championship post-game to praise her at the Final Four a year ago. Plus there are three other senior starters.

McCowan averages a double/double, 17.8 points and 13.5 rebounds with more than two blocks per game. 

Senior frontline mate Anriel Howard averages 16.2 points, 8.2 rebounds. Senior guard Jordan Danberry averages 13 points per game. Senior guard Jazzmun Holmes averages 5.2 assists per game.

Southern lost at Kentucky by 50. That is not a misprint. 

They have 15 players, almost all guards, five seniors. The leading scorer is Alyric Scott, under 10 points per game. This is their second NCAA this decade.

Southern’s first-year coach is Carlos Funches, elevated after 13 seasons as an assistant.

State started strong, McCowan and Howard combining for seven of the first nine. State was shooting 72 percent from the floor, Southern 25.

Danberry was on the attack, with six points. She has improved her scoring average by 10 points for her senior season. Schaefer said her quickness and ability to get to her spot, the place he needs her tom he on the court.

An aggressive defense had Southern already giving the one plus one with five minutes to go in the quarter and State up by a dozen. 

Schaefer gave McCowan a rest, but only from whistle to whistle.

He had told the team, “You better be ready to play hard, ready to pick up full court. I want to see us guard and defend. If you’re not playing defense, you’re not playing.”

Mississippi State was up by 19, 9-of-11 from the floor and there was still two minutes to go in the quarter.

Breamber Scott came off the bench for State. She finished with 18.

Like 30 victims before them, Southern had no clue what to do with State.

 It was a 27-point advantage at the quarter. Howard had 13 and McCowan 12, each outscoring Southern by themselves. The team was 12-of-15 from the floor, 12-of-13 from the line.

With Schaefer experimenting with new mixes it was only 55-39 at half. Bob Knight used to coach this way, getting live game experience for any potential need.

McCowan already had her double/double, 20 points and 13 rebounds, 10 defensive. Howard had 15 points and eight rebounds. Danberry had 10. Those three were a combined 15-of-22.

The lead grew to 47 in the third. Holmes made it all four senior starters in double figures.

 Howard had her double/double. It was as clean a win on any court in the tournament. They had doubled rebounds on Southern.

 One wonders what Schaefer could mix up to serve the final quarter.

They had scored 99 with three minutes left. The 103-46 final was inevitable. It shows the strength of the SEC, when a champ from another conference can be so overwhelmed. State entered the Round of 32.  

That’s the playoffs used to start, before money dictated everything. Bids such as the one Southern got are like participation trophies.

With the first one done Schaefer said he does not avoid the past.

“We’ve not dodged talking about championships at Mississippi State,” he said. “We want to walk the walk. How do you deal with losing, You wrap your arms around it, you own it.

“Those last three seconds, it haunts me.”

Schaefer said he was happy for the family of his community the assistants and the players.

 “I am very proud of our team and the NCAA rewarded us for al the hard work,” he said. “I am happy for our fans.”

He had taken a trip to a national junior college game, likely to see a prospect, and he broke down the Arkansas championship game while flying. 

“When I got done, I have three legal pad pages of notes about issues we need to correct,” he said. “And that’s from a win in which we played very well.

“But that’s repetitive things. That’s from the film and the film doesn’t lie.

“Film does not lie. So when you see things, trust me, there’s going to be other coaches watching that film. They’re going to be writing down the same things.

“I told my team, do you just push it aside and say ‘Well, we’re winning’ or do we try to fix it to make it even better.

 “That’s my challenge with this team. I still believe this team can be the best one ever yet. But that’s my challenge as a coach.”

Schaefer continued his ascension to back-to-back national coach of the year honors by capturing a spot in the finalist pool of the Naismith honor.

They drew nearly 11,000 a sellout and top draw of the tournament.

 Texas A&M (24-7) 84, Wright State (27-7) 61

Oh is league leading scorer Chennedy Carter back after missing the league tournament with a strained finger. 

 Fresh off of being selected as a Regional finalist for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-Americans, she started this one 5-of-7 from the field (3-of-4 3s)  2-of-3 from the line.

 Running mate Kayla Wells was also 3-of-4 on 3s. The team was 61 percent from the field.

This is the point in the tournament when Top 16 seeds start eliminating champs of other conferences, underlining why an SEC semifinalist is so much better. All-time, No. 4 seeds had won 94 of 100 first-round games, so Wright State was in the wrong place and got a whooping in its second-ever NCAA game.

 They were held to 29 percent from the field at the start. It was 42-12 at the half.

A&M finished 14th in the final AP Poll, up three spots based on the strength of the SEC after losing in the 

league tournament semifinal.

Coach Gary Blair said Carter’s return is “hopefully like Zion Williamson coming back.” He said getting seeded at home was correct, that the Selection Committee “has never been wrong in 14 years.

“I’ve either been higher but never lower than what we projected. We’ve played well. We’ve beaten some pretty tough teams. After starting 0-2 (SEC) we went 12-2 the rest of the way. We earned the No. 4 seed and the rest of the SEC fared very well.

“We’re exactly where we need to be even if we’re the No. 16 seed.

“We’ve got to worry about our game, right here, with Wright State. I have followed the career of coach Katrina Merriweather. She was tremendous in AAU, as was her dad. They’ve got three 1,000-point  scorers on their team and they are a veteran team.”

A&M starts five sophomores.

“They share the ball,” Blair said.

An assistant is Tennille Adams. “She hit the basket in ’98 that pushed us past Duke and into the Final Four, so I’ve gotta lot of love for Tennille Adams.”

It was 67-46 after three. The State of confusion was hitting 28 percent from the field.

Carter finished with 27, three 3s, 8-of-11 from the line with seven rebounds. Cierra Johnson hit 7-of-8 free throws among her 15 points. Wells also scored 15. All are career highs. Shambria Washington had nine rebounds and seven assists. 

They drew 2,517.

“I guess the saga of pinky-gate is over,” Blair said with a laugh. “I thought Carter played extremely well.”

Carter revealed she did have minor surgery.

“Even though I wasn’t able to play, I was doing a lot of things off the court that really helped me,” Carter said. “And once the doctors finally released me, I’ve just been in the gym putting up shots and working on my game. So that was the biggest thing, just staying in the gym and it paid off.”

Wright State senior Emily Vogelpohl could not afford to take time off. 

With her career over, she revealed after the game that she played despite breaking her right wrist in practice a week earlier. 

Vogelpohl had led the team in assists and steals during the regular season.

Playing in pain, she had two points and two rebounds in 22 minutes.

“I tried to block a shot and I was like: Oh, my gosh, that hurt really bad,’ ” she said. “But, I just wanted to play. So I’m thankful I had the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament.”

With the large lead from the jump, there was naturally a disparity in free throws. Blair was happy the Aggies responded to the opportunity

The Raiders attempted seven free throws, making five. A&M went to the line 35 times and made 26.

Up Sunday for A&M is Marquette, the winner going to the Sweet 16.

Carter’s regional WBCA selection is for a second consecutive year. An Aggie has not been honored since 2011. The 10-member team will be revealed.

 South Carolina (22-9) 74, Belmont (26-67) 52

The other No. 4 seed in what would be the Albany Sweet 16, the Gamecocks are home 100 miles away from campus in the other Carolina, Charlotte, because the men’s tournament bumped them.

SC averages 76 points per game and allows 65. Belmont averages 75, but allows 59, so SC’s scorers had something to overcome.

In a shared comparison, Belmont lost at Tennessee by eight.

“I’m miserable,” coach Dawn Staley said about the aftershock of leaving the SEC tournament one-and-done. “I want to get us back out there and playing. 

“When things like that happen, hopefully we utilize the time we had off. I’ve been saying to our team all year long behind closed doors we could beat anybody and we could lose to anybody.

“That held true in the SEC tournament. So we had to just get back to the basics.”

SC has never played either team in its opening round games.

Guard Te'a Cooper leads four double-figure scorers, all averaging less than 12.

South Carolina started on defense. A three-point second quarter by Belmont led to a 29-16 half. It got so bad in the third, when the lead was 19, that the ESPN broadcaster trotted out the old “there’s no quit” in Belmont. 

Duh. Is there ever quit in any team in the NCAAs?

Sad that the broadcasts fell to such dullards.

Tyasha Harris had six assists by the third quarter, pushing her past 500 career, also moving to fifth on the all-time program list. She scored 12 by the end of the third.

Alexis Jennings also had a dozen points, 4-of-6 from the field, 4-of-5 from the line, with nine rebounds and two blocks. It was 60-36 and ended 74-52. 

Staley sat her starters and got 22 points from her bench.

SC had safely advanced to take on Florida State.

 The Gamecocks had already passed the Bruins’ average allowed.

 “Their motto is they want to turn their defense into offense . . .  and they did that today,” said Belmont guard Darby Maggard. 

The three points allowed in the second quarter is a program record. 

It is also a program record for Belmont futility.

 Belmont was more than 20 under its offensive average.

The fourth quarter was time to run the clock while maintaining a majority of more than 20. 

Cooper emerged late with 13 points. The Gamecocks had four in double-digits.

“We feel like we put in the work and we feel good about where we are,” Staley said. “Hopefully we can continue dictating energy and be flying around out there.”

Jennings agreed. “We knew we had to raise our defensive presence,” she said.

“That was part of the game plan,” Jennings said. “I feel like I am at my best when I have my two feet in the paint.”

Staley disciplined two important players, their absences noted as “Coach’s decision.”

Junior Mikiah Herbert Harrigan did not play in the first half and senior Bianca Cuevas-Moore did not play at all.

Staley chose not to explain. “Obviously something happened but I am just not going to divulge that information.” 

Both are again eligible for future games. 

They only drew 1,705 for this home game.

Harris is a finalist for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association All-American team to be announced at the Final Four

Missouri  (24-10) 77, Drake (27-7) 76 (OT)

Trying to improve a plateaued NCAA record, the seventh seed Tigers are in Iowa City, the start of the road to a Sweet 16 in Greensboro Drake was 12-3 away from campus. Missouri was 8-6.