It’s really incredible how Vic Schaefer launched Mississippi State’s women’s basketball program from average to elite in such a short time. He’s gone to the University of Texas now, but for eight years he took us on a wild ride that many fans (including myself) never thought they’d have with women’s college basketball.
The steady improvement year-to-year with Schaefer was clear.
Year 1: 13-17 (5-11), no postseason
Year 2: 22-14 (5-11), 4th round of the WNIT
Year 3: 27-7 (11-5), 2nd round of NCAA Tourney
Year 4: 28-8 (11-5), Sweet 16
Year 5: 34-5 (13-3), NCAA Tourney Runner-Up
Year 6: 37-2 (16-0), SEC regular season champion, NCAA Tourney Runner-Up
Year 7: 33-3 (15-1), SEC regular season & tourney champs, Elite 8
Year 8: 27-6 (13-3), postseason canceled
Those two narrow misses in national championship games will be remembered for a long time. The highlight of his tenure will be defeating UConn and their 111-game winning streak on a buzzer-beater.
In all, Schaefer won 16 NCAA Tournament games (over a 5 year span). MSU men’s basketball has won 10 NCAA Tournament games in its 108 seasons of play.
Sharon Fanning-Otis will remain MSU’s all time winningest coach with 281 wins to Schaefer’s 221. She, however, only had 6 NCAA Tournament wins.
It’s kind of interesting how both Dan Mullen and Vic Schaefer are almost unarguably the best coaches in their program’s history, but both left just short of becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach.
It was a lot of fun watching Vic Schaefer’s teams at Mississippi State. If only we could’ve gotten that national championship. Nevertheless, it was a fun ride, and here’s to hoping he changed the trajectory of MSU women’s hoops forever, to one of sustained success.
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