By Mike Siroky
The best conference in women’s basketball – the Southeastern – crowned its first new tournament champ in four seasons.
No. 5 nationally Mississippi State, the top seed, has only lost twice in a 30-win season.
They dominated the league tournament final, whomping upstart Arkansas 101-70 .
Coach Vic Schaefer could at last stay on court after the game was over, awash in the cascading ticker tape in his team’s colors.
It may be enough to warrant a No. 1 seed at last in the NCAA eliminations.
The Cremeologist has simply followed the top four in the NCAA rankings, with State, the next in line as the best of the rest.
Whether that means the Bulldogs drop into wherever Louisville is, the projected fourth No. 1, is up to the Selection Committee.
At that point, placing the No. 2s, the Magic 8 ball questions change again.
Sometimes, geography enters in to it.
As State has proven for two straight seasons, it doesn’t always.
Of course, a No. 2 would have to have a No. 1 eliminated anyway. There is the toughest game four matches in.
At the start of every season, some site somewhere will pitch writers to select a Sweet 16.
It is not difficult. UConn, then the best of the Pac 12 and the SEC start it. When there is a dominant team – there is not this year – then there’s everyone else in every scrambled order.
It ever gets written because we all know it is just a futility test, much like projecting the NCAA field without knowing of injuries to come.
Placements are erratic.
Once the NCAA stopped considering geographic necessities for anyone not UConn, anyone can go anywhere and an explanation can be made.
Even if it contradicts the previous selections.
The UConn brand still guarantees a crowd for anyone out East. No other team does that. They remain safe as a No. 2. No one else has that happen.
The SEC seems destined to get eight in again, with seven 20-game winners, Tennessee at 19 having earned the gift No. 8 this season.
If Arkansas is overlooked, it will be the first time a league 30-game winner is not in of 38 tournaments.
On SEC Championship Sunday, State swept the regular season and post-season, the marathon and the sprint.
They started the league season beating Arkansas by 24 and they ended it beating Arkansas by 31.
TeairaMcCowan and Anriel Howard not only got the 30th win we projected weeks ago before the NCAAs, but have combined for 89 points and 45 rebounds in two tournament games.
McCowan is the 6-foot-7 force underneath, a true All-American.
For State, an unusual karmic alignment has Jordan Danberry as a fourth senior starter.
She is from Arkansas, started there and fled the previous non-productive coach for her second choice, Mississippi State, which had recruited her hard.
Howard chose StarkVegas after completing degree requirements at Texas A&M. Schaefer adjusted to the new realities to have four senior starters, half of which started with him.
Jazzmun Holmes and McCowan, the four-year players, have 130 career wins, fourth-best of their era Howard has 100 career wins.
The fun focus was the unexpected No. 10 seed, Arkansas. Coach Mike Neighbors knows 20 wins could bump him into the NCAAs.
Just to get to the title game, they had to score the final 17 points of the semifinal win.
The Razorbacks trailed for 39 of 40 minutes.
With no real forward wall, it needed a Roadrunner game, no standing around. There has never been a No. 10 in the finals.
This was a rare fourth game in four days. It never happens any other time during the season. State’s three games in three days is just as rare.
Neighbors challenges his team to play in 11-minute segments, always all-out.
“I’m numb, extremely numb,” Neighbors said.
Star forward Chelsee Dungee said they all locked down and played for each other. She does not play the “nobody believes in us card” because they all are upbeat and believe in each other.
This her first year at Arkansas, transferring in from Oklahoma 35 pounds lighter. They have never had the pressure of expecting to win.
There is bright-eyed exuberance all down the bench line swaying in joy on the sidelines while the game is in progress, all confidence.
“If we need the play, we’ll use 405 again,” said Neighbors. “That’s the play where it’s either Mal (Malica Monk) on the drive for a kick out to Chelsee and that was the 3 that won it.”
“We just buckle down and play as a team,” Dungee said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet that we are playing for the championship.”
But here it came.
Championship
Mississippi State 101, Arkansas 70.
The Bulldogs stand alone. They have the largest bark and the biggest bite. The national No. 5 dispatched another unranked survivor.
Teaira McCowan had 24 points and 14 rebounds. Senior classmate Jordan Danberry scored 14. Anriel Howard scored 11. Jazzmun Holmes, the fourth senior starter, had 12 assists.
It started with Arkansas setting a sprinter’s pace.
Could the four-game grind allow that?
The bigs from State countered with six apiece. They doubled Arkansas 28-14, in the first.
They doubled Arkansas 28-14, in the first.
McCowan had 10 points. Sophomore guard Breamber Scott brought 2-of-2 3s off the bench, eight total points.
She was rewarding her seniors.
State was ahead in rebounds 13-5. Efficiency was winning over streetball.
Chelsee Dungee had four points and two fouls.
Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors had used his methods for the success, following a 13-18 first season. He had to leave his only real scorer on the court.
In the second, McCowan moved to 8-of-10 from the field with two blocks. Scott hit double figures. The lead grew to 19, trending towards the expected result.
The other expected result was a McCowan double/double. She had 18 points and needed but two rebounds.
The ballots could be filled for tournament MVP.
The lead was 20. Even a fifth quarter could not help Arkansas this day. State was hitting 71 percent from the floor.
Dungee had 12, setting the tournament record with 91 points, so she’d be all-tournament too. She finished with an even 100.
She’d trade it all for a chance to win here. She needed to more than double the points to reach her tournament average.
No one could tell where her teammates had gone.
They were 33 percent from the floor.
“We have no answer for McCowan,” Neighbors said. He packed his defenders inside the paint.
Howard picked up her third foul. Schaefer took off his jacket and took her out. It was still a 20-point difference.
McCowan had her double/double. They were going to hit a hundred for the sixth time, but a first in the SEC this season.
Schaefer was still disappointed because his team seemed willing to go racing. He called time out to explain.
Play the game plan.
Holmes had 10 assists. Danberry had 10 points as the fourth Bulldog in double figures. Dungee had her fourth foul, 24 points and still little help. But she was past 100 points for the tournament.
Howard came back in and hit the free throws that made it a 30-point lead and 10 personal points.
McCowan actually took a minute break.
Sophomore guard Andra Espinoza-Hunter was 5-of-8 from the field, all 3s, so five players in double figures.
Neighbors seemed satisfied to rotate everyone in so they’d be in the all-time record book as having played in a title game.
Hmm, he managed to cut seven from the lead.
But State was still hitting better than 60 percent from the field.
The game slowed.
The Bulldogs knew they’d get a hundred.
McCowan made a beautiful over the shoulder backwards assist pass to Danberry. She and Danberry left to standing ovations with three and a half minutes left.
There was nothing left in the Arkansas tank. Schaefer got everyone in. He was in tears.
Espinoza-Hunter hit an SEC tournament record eight 3s. She had been 2-of 11 from distance.
“Well God puts you through some moments to get you something better down the line,” Schaefer said.
Of his family, personal and team, he said they made the sacrifice.
“T has made me a better coach. My proudest moment will be when she walks across the stage to get her degree.
“As a coach, I’ve done this a long time,” Schaefer said. “We’ve cut down some nets. I’ve cut down a lot of nets in my career. In this particular venue, in this game, in this conference, as a head coach, that moment has eluded me.
“It's about those kids. To see the fruits of their labor come to fruition. As a coach, it’s why you do what you do. It’s just a very rewarding moment for me as a coach to see those kids.
“Praise the Lord and Go ’Dawgs!”
McCowan said it was all about following the Schaefer game plan. “If we do that we will win,” she said
Holmes said the team simply played hard and “I believe with whatever Teaira says.”
The four State seniors have two more home games before the Sweet 16.
Opening night, the SEC telecasters tried to tell us 3,148 was a great crowd.
No comment on the second day’s 1,138.
The top seed and in-state team attracted 4,431 for the quarterfinals. This semifinals drew 5,813 with South Carolina no longer around to attract in-state fans to Greenville.
The title game drew 5,771 on a Sunday afternoon.
All those numbers are half what national attendance leader SC averaged and thousands less than State and Tennessee averaged.
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