Mississippi State looked great. They are not the most talented but they are so well coached and players play within themselves. Schaefer is easily one of the best coaches in the country and he's proving it this year.
Vivians should be a top 5 pick in the WNBA next year. She takes good shots, is quick enough to take her defender off the dribble, can hit midrange and from DEEP, and she's become a much better decision maker. She's been fantastic in every game I've seen her play this year, and I thought she was the best player on the court today. She owned Nared, who really struggled.
McCowan was also very good despite being neutralized by Russell. Teaira is just so solidly built. Her frame is so strong and she does a good job of getting deep position and has great hands for nabbing rebounds. Doesn't have good touch unless she's using the backboard, but she's going to be a handful for anyone. Curious to see how a much slighter but quicker Stevens will match up with her, or how McCowan will do against Brown of Baylor.
Johnson/Schaefer were the biggest difference makers today though. Both played their role extremely well and just came up big. Johnson is a great shooter but took Hayes off the dribble multiple times for easy buckets, and Schaefer spreads the floor like Nurse does for you guys, and she nails open looks. Schaefer also does a great job of taking charges and didn't seem to force anything.
For Tennessee, they have good individual players but their system just pales in comparison to Notre Dame's and Mississippi State's, and we saw that tonight. Once again, Holly made zero adjustments when Ms St regularly ran iso plays and pulled everyone to one side of the court and had Vivians or Johnson take their defender one on one. In her defense, Mississippi State is a hard matchup though. You have to put a body on McCowan or she'll get layup after layup (see Oregon game), but you can't sag or play zone because Mississippi State has 4 players who can (and will) drain 3s. They play tough in your face defense and have players who can score in iso situations and create their own shot. They are MUCH better than they were a year ago on the offensive side of the ball. I would love to see a rematch between them and the Huskies in the tournament. It's not going to be an easy win for the Huskies if they match up again.
