How Vic Schaefer created a winning culture

By Brett Hudson

Vic Schaefer came to Mississippi State with no illusions, no desire to avoid the inevitable.

“We knew what 13-17 was going to look like,” Schaefer said, referencing his first season in Starkville, the 2012-13 season. Schaefer did nothing to dodge that short-term fate.

Instead, he installed a culture. The same culture that took the program from 13 wins to, by the end of Friday night, 13 (and counting) NCAA Tournament games over three seasons; the culture that has survived, if not fortified, as the program rose from inconsistent at best to constant Final Four threat.

It is the Vic Schaefer culture that years ago appealed to players hungry to reverse a program’s fortunes, now appealing to the nation’s most well known talent with more offers than they can handle. It is the culture that has captivated Starkville and a Mississippi State community to thousands of people on a nightly basis, home or away. 

This is the tale of how that culture was built.

“We have a saying: it’s not what we do, it’s how we do it that separates us from the rest of the country,” MSU assistant coach Johnnie Harris told Matt Wyatt Media.

* * *

In the beginning, establishing that culture was far more important than immediate talent. Harris remembers the program starting by trying to find players that could be competitive in the SEC, but it didn’t have to be raw scorers. Some things were non-negotiable.

“When we got here, we were really missing toughness,” Schaefer told Matt Wyatt Media. “Savannah Carter and Dominque Dillingham were two kids that really brought that toughness piece in practice every day: they were tough, physical, aggressive guards that we desperately needed. I recruited both of those kids not just for their skill set, but for their toughness piece and their competitive spirit.”

That first class — Carter, Dillingham, Ketara Chapel, Breanna Richardson and Chinwe Okorie — was crucial in that regard. Schaefer put it simply, “We inherited a bunch of good kids, but the toughness was missing,” and he leaned on that class to install it. Dillingham and Richardson ended up becoming two of just 26 players to score 1,000 career points, but their most valuable work was installing the style and image Schaefer wanted to have.

Yes, that means intense defense for the full 94 feet of the court. It means attention to detail on the offensive end and sacrifice everywhere, be it diving for loose balls or taking charges. But it also means thriving in a work environment that Schaefer realizes can grind down even the strongest of competitors.

“I’m trying to pitch a perfect game, that’s who I am. And that’s not going to happen, by the way,” Schaefer said. “I’m trying to beat somebody something to nothing, that’s who I am. I’m trying to coach the perfect game, the perfect team every day. My staff, they work tirelessly in that same mentality.

“Trying to coach the perfect game, be perfect, you can find yourself being a little bit miserable. It’s a hard way to live, but at the end of the day, it’s who I am and it’s who we are, it’s who we’re trying to be.”

That first class had to learn to live in Schaefer’s world and how to embrace it, but also how to teach it. Therein lies one secret of how this culture has stood the test of time and significant program rise: coaches engrained it in the first class, and players have passed it down to each other ever since.

That’s how Bre’Amber Scott learned it: she simply looked up to the seniors around her, knowing they were an example to follow, but their eyes would also be on her. When the culture is enforced by both coaches and players, it lasts the test of time and growth.

As challenging as the way of life may be for players adopting it, it’s just as hard for coaches to find players who can live it. This is not 2012 Mississippi State anymore: those that become Bulldogs are not signing up to simply thrive in a challenging environment, they have to stand that test and come out of it as the best players in the nation. Recent performance suggests nothing but the nation’s best will satisfy program expectations.

Finding the nation’s best players and those willing to live the Schaefer way is a small cross-section of people, and one that isn’t always easy to obtain.

* * *

Schaefer sees a lot of what he calls the Jack It Judy mentality in his recruiting trips: highly-rated players who know they are primarily evaluated for their ability to jack up shots in bulk and make them, and therein lies their sole motivation. Scoring ability is important, and MSU requires it, but it takes more than that to earn a chance to become a Bulldog.

“We recruit to a fit and the summer time is when you do your homework, when you’re out on the recruiting trail watching kids play and developing your list,” Schaefer said. “Not every kid can play our style, athletically, physically, can play our style of basketball. For us, those are the kinds of student-athletes that we have to go recruit.

“Not everybody wants to be that player that defends and dives for loose balls and is a gym rat.”

Photo by Blake Williams, MSU Athletics

If this were a Venn diagram, the selection of players that can truly thrive in the Schaefer culture is a small one, but the intersection between that circle and the one for nationally elite players is a small target to hit.

The recruiting records show MSU is hitting that small cross-section.

According to the rankings from girlsbasketballreport.com, MSU’s 2013 and 2014 classes contained just four players ranked among the top 50 at their position and only four among the top 150 nationally regardless of position. Compare that Teaira McCowan and Andra Espinoza-Hunter, both ranked fifth their respective signing class, both top 50 regardless of position, and both living the Schaefer edict well.

If the trend continues, the future could be even brighter: of the three freshmen on the roster (redshirt Myah Taylor, true freshmen Jessika Carter and Xaria Wiggins) and the five signed in the 2019 class, half of them are top 10 at their position and only one is outside of the top 25. All of them are inside the top 150 nationally, all but one inside the top 100.

Schaefer is convinced there are enough of those prospects that, given his staff’s recruiting ability and the program’s prominence, “You don’t have to settle for one over the other,” being elite talent or aptitude for the Schaefer way.

And yet, at MSU, their prospect search has an additional layer to it. From the moment these players set foot on campus, they are community icons.

It’s rare for athletes other than football players to attract followings of that ilk, but MSU women’s basketball is as close it gets in SEC country. The modern-day MSU player has a line of autograph and photo seekers at the end of every game, home and away, who are on the floor before they get back to the locker room. (To make no mention of the other public events, promotions and Schaefer’s affinity for exposing them to the media.)

It’s something Schaefer and staff take seriously, much like the program’s on-court identity. So they leave it to the seniors to handle.

“I think the culture we have created, the things we talk about, the things we show them and the situations we put them in allow them to buy into that mentality,” Harris said. “I don’t know that everybody that you recruit, I don’t know that they will show that or you will be able to see it. Some kids say they have it but maybe not so much. Once they get into it, they see our players doing it and seeing how our fans react, sometimes you can see a Teaira or a Jordan (Danberry), you see those kids on the court with long lines on the court every game, and sometimes it’s the same people wanting the same picture.

“Because we put Teaira in those positions, they come to appreciate our fans. I think it teaches them to be approachable and teaches them to appreciate our fans. That’s something we build once they get here. Some may have it, some may not have it, but it’s not optional. It’s what we do.”

It’s an all-around challenging way to live, but MSU doesn’t hide that from the players it is persuading to sign up.

* * * 

Schaefer is signing basketballs in his office as we talk. This sit-down comes early in the eight-day stretch where his team doesn’t know who its next opponent is, much less the days after that waiting to play them.

I ask him, “Do you have to derecruit?”

The marker in his hand comes to an abrupt stop. A look of confusion takes over his face.

“Do I have to what?”

I then explain to him that derecruiting is a term often used by football coaches, a term they’ve invented to describe the process of bringing their signees down to earth after a recruiting process that put them on a pedestal. These recruits have been told for months by dozens of coaching staffs that they are the best thing they’ve ever seen, then they get to campus and coaches have to convince them of their flaws and get their minds focused on developing them. Thus, derecruiting.

Looking back on it, the fact that I had to define derecruiting for him probably answered my question. But he expanded on it anyway.

“I think kids understand when they sign up for Mississippi State, they know what they’re doing,” Schaefer said. “Certainly freshmen, there’s a learning curve, but the kids that are here show them the ropes, show them what needs to be done, show them how we do things and just let them know this is what we do here and this is why we’re playing for national championships every year.”

As Harris put it: “We let them know how hard it’s going to be, what our kids are going to go through. I think Coach uses the phrase, ‘It will be hard, it will be difficult, but it will be worth it.’ We let them know that in the beginning. We’re not going to put you through anything that you can’t do, that hasn’t been done before.”

Schaefer has alluded to that approach being used against him. After MSU 91-63 win over Tennessee on Feb. 10, he said he has heard of opposing schools using Schaefer’s ideology of high-intensity defense against him; seemingly trying to convince a group of shooters that they would have to learn to play defense for him, but wouldn’t be bogged down as such somewhere else.

Schaefer’s response is simple: “Yeah, you’re going to have to learn to play defense, but you’re going to win, too.”

The message is communicated effectively, according to Bre’Amber Scott: “When you come here, you come here to win. You have to play within our system, that’s how it works.”

It’s done this way because it works. It’s done this way because this is the way that Schaefer used to create a juggernaut.

It is the way Schaefer will use to try to win that last game.

“There’s a difference between a top 10 team and a top 10 program. Teams come and go — especially that 12-25 range, that’s pretty fluid. But the top 10 programs, those teams are there every year,” Schaefer said. “When you get the paper in October and you want to know who’s in the preseason top 25, you’re looking in the top 10 for the same teams. That’s what I promised them that we’d build.”

Twins in coaching do battle in the NCAA Tournament

By Brett Hudson

Butch and Clemmie Pierre got to spend a good bit of time in Nashville in early March. They first made the trip to watch Liberty, where their son Joe Pierre III is the Director of Player Development, beat Lipscomb to win the Atlantic Sun championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. A few days later, their other son, Mississippi State’s Video Coordinator Josh Pierre, was there for the Bulldogs’ run in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

At that point, it was evident both of their sons would be working for teams in the NCAA Tournament. These twins have split the family before — Joe graduated from Oklahoma State the same day Josh graduated from Arkansas State — but they couldn’t do this one. They decided to watch the two games at home.

Then mere minutes into the Selection Sunday special, their twin sons were pitted against one another.

“My mom is elated,” Joe Pierre III said. “I haven’t heard her as excited as this since when my dad’s team went to the Final Four in ’06.”

That 2006 Final Four team was LSU, when Butch Pierre was an assistant for John Brady, bringing then teenage twins Joe III and Josh along for the ride. That run was ended in the national semifinals by UCLA, then coached by none other than Josh Pierre’s current boss, Ben Howland. It’s one of many instances of serendipity in the Pierre basketball story.

* * *

Butch Pierre — Joe Pierre II given the nickname Butch by his grandmother — played for MSU from 1981-84 and remains top 10 in school history in career assists. The fact that Josh is about to conclude his first season working for Butch’s alma mater (and the place that began his coaching career) is a thrill for the entire family.

That kind of coincidence has made the roads to Friday’s game both fun and bordering on surreal for the family. But they’ve also been necessary, as both sons have had to fight their way here.

Joe was forced into this line of work early: he tore his ACL, LCL, PCL and meniscus in a freak knee injury, robbing him of his senior season in high school. While Josh played out that senior season, wearing his brother’s No. 11 as tribute, Joe III helped coach the junior varsity team and compiled scouting reports for his brother’s varsity team.

Josh saw the beginnings of a solid coach right then and there.

“There’s a reason why he’s there, there’s a reason why he’s impacted winning every where he goes; he always goes to the Tournament,” Josh told Matt Wyatt Media. “I think he’ll always win.”

From there, Joe III was a student manager at Oklahoma State, where Butch was an assistant coach. Joe III’s path into the profession started at the high school level, where he was a student teacher at the junior high and assisting the Pawnee High School team in Oklahoma — until he was immediately catapulted to the NCAA Tournament.

Joe III landed a graduate assistant job at Middle Tennessee — then coached by Kermit Davis, who shared a locker room with Butch Pierre at MSU and a coaching staff at LSU with him from 1997-2002 — and went to the NCAA Tournament in his first season there, where he was part of 15 MTSU taking down 2 Michigan State.

While Joe III was working his way up at Oklahoma State, Josh was playing at Arkansas State for John Brady — the same head coach Butch worked for on LSU’s Final Four run in 2006. As a senior, Josh led the nation in walk-on minutes played per game all while establishing his own base in the family industry, taking all opportunities provided to sit in on coach film sessions, scouting report breakdowns and even timeout discussions.

That Arkansas State experience proved to be the one he would follow for years, starting as a graduate assistant before moving up to director of operations. Like freshmen forwards Reggie Perry and Robert Woodard, Josh Pierre felt the call to return to the place that was home for his father.

Somehow, all of those roads meet in San Jose for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

* * *

“Out of the 14 times I’ve been to the NCAA Tournament,” Butch Pierre said, “it’s the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen.”

Joe III’s reaction to the news certainly suggests he thought the same thing.

Find the young man on the third row, near the right aisle. He’s the one who remains seated, hands on his head clearly in shock as every player, coach, fan and support staffer around him stands and meets Liberty’s bid in the NCAA Tournament with unchecked enthusiasm.

The announcement pic.twitter.com/PjKAbkqxt6

— A Sea of Red (@ASeaofRed) March 17, 2019

That man is Joe Pierre III, realizing he and his brother would realize a dream in the making for their entire lives.

“We were excited, one, just to see each other. In this world of college basketball, we rarely get to see each other. I’m excited to see more than to play him,” Joe Pierre III said. “It’s one of those moments you dream of as a young coach’s kid. It’s something I think only God can orchestrate. There’s really no explanation for me.

“We talked shortly thereafter. There were not a lot of words to be said.”

This is more than a dream for Josh, making his first appearance in the NCAA Tournament as something more than the assistant coach’s kid. This grants them the opportunity to do something greater.

“Something my brother and I talked about since we were in high school, if we ever got to this platform we would talk about what matters to us, which is not basketball, winning or losing games,” Josh Pierre said. “We’d have a platform to talk about Jesus and how faith guides our lives. That’s what we want our story to be about. That’s who we are, that’s how our family is and we want to glorify Jesus.”

Joe III went out of his way to say the same. In all that this weekend will mean for the family, the platform for their faith is among their favorite aspects.

Butch Pierre also appreciates the guarantee of it all.

“For the first time, I’m winning either way it goes,” he joked.

He said he and his wife will bring both Mississippi State and Liberty shirts, with him wearing one school while she wears the other and switching at halftime. Friday, the day of the game, is also Butch’s daughter/Joe III and Josh’s sister Langley’s birthday, so she’ll be in San Jose with the family.

If Liberty is to advance, they could play for a spot in the Sweet 16 against Saint Louis and coach Travis Ford — the same man who coached Oklahoma State when Butch was an assistant there and Joe III was a student manager. It could also be Josh’s shot at the Sweet 16 in his first time in the tournament.

Both brothers are open to the idea of sticking around San Jose to see their brother’s team in the second round — but even more open to being in that second round themselves.

“If that’s what God has in the plan, for them to win, then I’ll support them in the next game, and I’m sure he will, too,” Josh said.

Joe Pierre III put it this way: “I’d love to. Obviously focus right now is really wanting to win the game, but I’d love to see my brother do that.”

Full Count, Week 5: 3 slugging numbers, 2 pitching thoughts

By Brett Hudson

As you can imagine, with an 18-2, 2-1 team coming home after taking a road series with a top 10 team, there’s going to be a lot of positivity in here.

3 Incredible Slugging Numbers

It’s been a while….

…since Mississippi State has seen power hitting like this to start a season.

In these first 20 games, MSU has 54 doubles, 3 triples and 21 home runs, the best slugging start since at least 2007. (MSU has game-by-game stat reports going back to 2007 — that’s another way of saying there is an easy way for me to see what MSU has done through 20 games going back to 2007, but beyond that I would have to go box score by box score and ain’t nobody got time for that. Still, that’s a sample size of 13 seasons — plenty to prove MSU’s slugging start is far beyond what it usually does.)

Of the 12 previous teams in this sample, none came within six doubles of the 54 by this year’s team through 20 games; 10 of them fell short of 40. The 21 home runs is also best since at least 2007, with five of the teams since 2007 producing fewer than 10 home runs by the 20-game mark.

Slugging better than all of those teams is impressive when you consider the 2016 team ended opening weekend with 21 doubles and the 2013 team had a wild streak of a triple in six straight games. And remember those 21 home runs this year’s team has hit? That’s how many the 2012 team hit in the entire season; the 2014 team hit 16 all season.

Extra Base Hits Through 20 games, last 13 seasons

Here’s another way to look at it: let’s pretend Extra Bases are a statistic, in which a double gives you one extra base, a triple gives you two and a home run gives you three. This team through 20 games has produced 123 Extra Bases: only four of the teams since 2007 produced more than 100 in their first 20 games, but none of them can match this year’s 123. The average Extra Bases produced of the 2007-2018 teams is 81.3.

However you look at it, this team has started with more power than any Bulldog team in over a decade.

Jake Mangum is part of the power surge

I wrote last year about how Mangum attributed a more narrow stance and being more patient to delivering more extra-base hits, and he’s keeping that going from his junior to senior season.

One example: Mangum produced 16 extra-base hits as a freshman, the year he won the SEC batting title. Last year he had 22 doubles alone and is on pace for something like 27 this year, assuming MSU plays at least a dozen postseason games.

Another way of looking at this is isolated power. It’s one of the more simple Sabermetric statistics: it’s slugging minus batting average. You can see what it’s trying to accomplish, it more or less boils down to the number of extra bases produced per at-bat.

Jake Mangum’s isolated power from freshman year to the first 20 games of his senior year: .102, .061, .128, .141.

It all comes without two key pieces

It bears noting that all of this power is coming without much from Rowdey Jordan — last year’s leader in slugging percentage — or the second base position.

I noted in last week’s Full Count that I still believe Jordan can be a productive hitter, so this isn’t waving the white flag on being this good without his usual form, but it is wild to think that he could find himself soon and this lineup could have even more pop.

And on the second base thing: yes, that’s not normally a position for power hitting, but MSU has been spoiled by getting some of that from Hunter Stovall last year and would have gotten it the year before if not for his injuries.

2 Pitching Thoughts

Pounding the strike zone….

Chris Lemonis is clearly a seasoned vet when it comes to media as a head coach, and I learned that through something he said about the pitching staff.

This may not have been his exact word combination, but it’s pretty close: “If we pound the zone, we’re going to be OK.” The unfiltered version of that is, “My pitchers are better than almost any lineup we can see, so as long as they don’t beat themselves, we’re gonna win.”

This staff has been living up to that simple formula.

This staff has walked a total of 48 batters in 20 games — and 10 of those walks belong to Keegan James, who the fan base is currently putting on the hot seat in his No. 3 starter role. (I’m going to stay out of that debate for now; I want to see a little more before I make my call.)

….it doesn’t matter who

Think about this for a minute: the bullpen just covered 10 innings with a 0.800 WHIP — on the road against a top 10 team — and did it without Peyton Plumlee, the guy often mentioned in the aforementioned No. 3 starter debate.

They can turn to Cole Gordon and Jared Liebelt for saves — and really can turn to Liebelt for anything.

Jared Liebelt threw 13 innings last year: 13.15 ERA, 21 hits and 8 walks allowed.

Jared Liebelt through 13.1 innings this year: 1.38 ERA, 9 hits and 2 walks allowed.

This kind of turnaround is simply unbelievable.

— Brett Hudson (@Brett_Hudson) March 16, 2019

But they’re not limited to those options. They also had Spencer Price pitch the final inning of the third game in Gainesville, plus Riley Self got a late-game inning and Brandon Smith was thrown into a crucial situation earlier in that game.

Chris Lemonis said he is a guy who likes to have bullpen pitchers placed into well-defined roles, but the way that group is going right now, he can probably pull names out of a hat and get the job done.

Full Count, Week 4: 3 impressive individual stats, 2 thoughts on SEC schedule

By Brett Hudson

There are a few good benchmarks throughout the season that give us good reason to take a look at the stats and draw some conclusions, and conference play starting this weekend is a good one. Here we go.

Three Most Impressive Individual Stats

Justin Foscue slugging .656

Not only is the sophomore third baseman hitting the crap out of the baseball, but he’s also doing it with discipline: seven walks compared to six strikeouts.

With four doubles and five home runs on 23 hits, 39.13 percent of his hits are going for extra bags. (For context, when Rowdey Jordan led last year’s team in slugging [.518], 37.1 percent of his hits went for extra bases.) When you factor in that he leads all Bulldogs with more than 50 at-bats in batting average (.359), he’s undeniably MSU’s most valuable hitter and its most consistent: he has yet to go more than back-to-back games without a RBI.

Ethan Small is putting up 15 strikeouts per 9 innings

Friends, that’s 40 strikeouts in 24 innings pitched. Fourteen hits and two walks allowed for a batting average allowed of .169 and a WHIP of 0.667.

When you really focus in on his pitching, it’s easy to see how he’s striking people out. He’s locating his fastball and his breaking pitches are sharp, but the changeup is where he really kills people. It is the change of pace that a changeup is supposed to be but it also moves so much that broadcast folk can confuse it with a breaking ball, which JT Ginn loves. (I also made the same mistake, and Ethan was nice enough to enlighten me on how disgusting his changeup is.)

Colby White has struck out 52.17 percent of the batters he’s faced

Best I can tell, the newcomer flamethrower has faced 24 batters: two of them got hits, one of them got hit by a pitch, none of them walked. Eight were retired in the field and 12 were struck out. That’s insane.

There are a lot of really impressive numbers from freshman relievers, all of them earning those guys significant bullpen roles, but striking out guys at this rate is putting him in a serious conversation about the highest leverage roles in SEC weekends.

Honorable mentions: Jordan Westburg has been hit with 5 pitches in 15 games after being hit by 4 pitches in 42 games last year….Three catchers have gotten at least 20 at-bats: Marshall Gilbert, Dustin Skelton and Hayden Jones. All of them are slugging over .500….Elijah MacNamee has already walked 11 times this year after walking 13 times last year.

Two Things To Know About the SEC Schedule

We’ll know everything in 3 weeks

Florida’s starting rotation racks up strikeouts, its bullpen just went 10.1 weekend innings without allowing an earned run and is supported by a lineup that’s left the yard 19 times already, all while drawing nearly 5 walks per game.

Auburn has taken weekend series with mid-major powers Georgia Southern and UCF, swept Cincinnati and UTSA all while compiling a team ERA of 2.15. 

LSU has Antoine Duplantis’ incredible slashline of .356/.409/.593, complete with 24 RBI, yet he only leads the team in one of the three slashline stats.

Those are the three teams MSU starts the conference schedule with.

MSU’s first three SEC opponents are ranked 5/18/13 by D1Baseball and 4/17/11 by Baseball America. All the things we think we know about this team but want to see tested over a stint of awesome competition? The first three weeks of SEC play will do exactly that.

Stack wins in April

MSU’s most likely road to a top of the SEC finish puts a lot of pressure on April, because therein lies a rare opportunity to stack wins against SEC opponents.

Of the four SEC teams D1Baseball and Baseball America both projected to miss regionals, MSU gets two of them in April: Alabama and Tennessee. Then there is a series against an admittedly strong Georgia team, but it comes at home. The series at Arkansas also that month will be tough, but I still believe MSU needs to stack up as many as 9 wins in April to give itself wiggle room in terms of finishing atop the SEC. That would mean more or less splitting the months of March and May would give MSU 18 SEC wins; that isn’t always enough to win a division but isolate one weekend in those two months, make it a very good one and maybe it is enough.

Unusual defensive plan sends Bulldogs to SEC Tournament title game

By Brett Hudson

GREENVILLE, South Carolina — Mississippi State’s No. 1 plan was thrown into doubt six minutes into the game, and the backup plan met the same fate eight minutes later.

This was not the time to go to Plan C. This was the semifinals of the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament and the subject of these plans was Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham, having earlier in the game set the new school record for career scoring and already scored 42 points in her first two games of the tournament.

Plan C was ultimately the winning option.

By all traditional measures, Cunningham was the only thing keeping the upset-minded Tigers in contention with Mississippi State: 33 points on 11-for-16 shooting, 5-for-9 from 3-point range, would be considered Herculean in most contexts. But in this one, MSU making Cunningham’s road to that production as difficult as it was, is what sent the Bulldogs to a fourth straight SEC Tournament championship game appearance with a 71-56 win.

MSU’s Plan A for Cunningham was Jordan Danberry. She is quick enough to make Cunningham’s dribble-drive game almost impossible and she showed admirable fight in the post, battling to seal Cunningham over the top and deny entry passes. That plan looked like a good one — until Danberry picked up two fouls in six minutes, forever altering her usage. (She ended the game with 25 minutes; she’s played more than that in all but four games against conference foes this season.)

Plan B was Bre’Amber Scott, the more imposing and defensively adept of MSU’s two wing threats. She also picked up two fouls, hers coming before the midway point of the second quarter.

Plan C was Anriel Howard. She did not relent her usual heavy workload offensively — 19 points and 10 rebounds, 50 percent from the field and 60 percent from 3-point range — and added the challenge of handling one of the conference’s most prolific scorers.

She did it to rave reviews.

“It’s really hard to because Sophie is a great player,” Scott told Matt Wyatt Media. “We try to limit her touches as much as we could, keep her from shooting as much as we could. She’s a great player, she’s going to hit the shots she gets.”

Limiting shots is yet another Cunningham statistic that requires context. Yes, she attempted 16 shots, something she’s only done three times this year — one of them in the regular season meeting between the two, which Missouri won. But with Cunningham shooting 68.75 from the field and every other Tiger combining to shoot 33.3 percent (8-24), Missouri surely would have preferred Cunningham get more than 16 shots.

But MSU prevented it the only way they knew how.

“You have to make her uncomfortable, you have to make her work,” Howard said. “I’m a bigger person, so I think that bothered her a little bit. She still ended up with a lot of points, but I think it made her uncomfortable.”

Scott added, “You have to be physical with her, you have to let her know that you’re there. If it takes getting a foul, that’s what it takes, but you have to let her know you’re here and she’s not going to be the bully.”

Vic Schaefer thinks it’s possible the foul situation ended up being a good thing for MSU. Not only did it force Howard onto Cunningham and reveal her to be up to the challenge, but it also forced Cunningham to deal with three different body types and defending styles.

Schaefer also believes the secret is the lack of production from every other player. No Tiger scored more than six points; no other Tiger starter scored more than three. Cunningham was responsible for 11 of Missouri’s 19 made shots, five of its nine made 3-pointers and six of its nine made free throws.

They recognize Cunningham is the player who, as coaches say, is going to get theirs. The job is to make sure the supporting cast doesn’t beat you — and make life as hard as possible on that marquee scorer.

MSU did both, and now it has a shot at the SEC Tournament championship that has eluded this program for four decades.

Full Count, Week 3: 3 Things We Know about JT Ginn, 2 Numbers to Know

By Brett Hudson

The reception to last week’s random post of 3 things we know and 2 things we don’t was so positive — when combined with this helpful suggestion — has brought it back to be a weekly thing through baseball season. So each Monday I’ll do a full count: a set of 3 of one thing and a set of 2 on a different thing.

Hopefully there’s a good balance of changing topics to keep things fresh but also making recurring topics of your favorites, so let me know if you have a favorite that I should consider making a recurring thing.

3 Things We Know About JT Ginn

The moment will never be too big for him

JT Ginn is not the average high school kid, used to pitching in front of a few dozen people in high school games against the team down the street. He pitched for the USA Baseball U18 team and won a gold medal and he was in the Under Armour All-American Game.

Of course there is a grandiose argument to be had about the early specialization of young athletes, whether it helps or hurts, but there’s one thing that it undeniably helps: mental composure. Once you’ve played in championship games with the letters U, S and A across your chest — and won the hardware at stake — you’re prepared for a lot.

Ginn proved that when he threw 7 scoreless innings in front of 9,000-plus against Southern Miss; he proved it again in taking down a Texas Tech lineup that I believe to be SEC quality (although I admit they sure don’t look like it right now). He’s eventually going to have to pitch against LSU in Dudy Noble Field, plus in Oxford, College Station and Fayetteville — I haven’t mentioned Super Bulldog Weekend yet, have I?

Ginn has shown enough to know if he fails, it won’t be the moment. He’s capable of bringing his good stuff when it’s needed most, and that’s half the battle.

The fastball command is there

Beside watching him with my own two eyes and being perfectly able to draw that conclusion for myself, here are two numbers to support that claim.

First: 19 innings this year, three walks but six wild pitches. That tells me he pounds the zone but does have the ability to mistime the occasional breaking ball and let it get away from him. When one carries that, they have to be able to hit the zone with the straight pitches, and Ginn certainly does that.

The other number is the pitch count. He’s taken 5 innings with 68 pitches and 7 innings in each of his last two starts with exactly 86 pitches each. (How uncanny is that? Two consecutive starts, same innings and same pitch count?) Let’s compare that to the starts some of the SEC’s better pitchers are off to:

 - Texas A&M’s John Doxakis needed 196 pitches to cover 14 innings over his last two starts. Ginn? 172 to cover 14.

 - Vanderbilt’s Patrick Raby threw 94 pitches in 5.2 innings against Cal State Fullerton and 66 pitches in 4 innings against Pepperdine.

 - Tennessee’s Garrett Stallings has gone in between 7 and 8 innings in all three starts but has yet to do so in as few as 86 pitches, which Ginn has already done twice.

There is no reason to force him into hitting

Part of the excitement of landing a prospect like Ginn is the two-way ability, and trust me, I’m very much down with that. I’m in no way suggesting Ginn give up hitting, I just think he’s proven he doesn’t have to hit to be of significant value.

This is a two-way street. Yes, a part of it is he’s so good pitching right now. But three guys got DH at-bats in two games in Frisco and there are at least two or three options beyond them, Ginn not included. Now, if all those guys fall flat at some point, Ginn becomes a more attractive option. But maybe this is a year that he keeps himself warm as a hitter, routine batting practice sessions and all that, and trains himself to compete for a semi-regular hitting spot in 2020.

It’s not like MSU is always going to return almost all of the bats from an Omaha team. There will be opportunities for Ginn to hit, but it’s entirely possible this exact roster doesn’t require Ginn to hit to win.

2 Numbers To Know

No free bases

Yes, this Bulldog pitching staff is striking out batters at an incredible clip: 136 in 11 games, 12.3 per game. There is evidence to suggest this is something that hasn’t been done in as long as 15 years, maybe more.

But strikeout numbers can, and will, change. We’ll dive into the incredible nature of striking out batters like this if they continue to do it a few weeks into SEC play. But one thing that in theory won’t change is walks: if you can hit the strike zone, you can hit the strike zone, period.

This pitching staff is hitting the strike zone all the time.

It has walked a total of 25 batters in 11 games — 2.27 per game. To prove that’s in elite company, it’s the best by a Bulldog bunch since the 2007 team walked 2.76 per game for the entire season. Of the 11 teams in between now and 2007, all but one of them were above 3.3 walks per game and five of them were above 3.75 walks per game.

Considering the entire staff has a batting average allowed of .179 and they don’t allow walks….kind of a bleak picture for opposing lineups, isn’t it?

Jake Mangum record watch

- He’s now 61 hits shy of tying the SEC record for career hits, set by LSU’s Eddy Furniss in the mid 90’s. Based on his current average of .356 and his current pace of 4.09 at-bats per game, assuming he plays every game, he’ll reach that mark in the first game of the South Carolina series on May 16, the final series of the regular season. That date is cool with me because it’s a home game and that would be a great moment, but it’s also the first game after the final game of the Ole Miss series. And boy would it be poetic for him, famed Ole Miss killer, to break that record against them.

- He is only 44 hits shy of tying the MSU career record, which currently belongs to Jeffrey Rea. Using the same pacing mechanism from earlier, he’ll reach that mark in the final game of the Arkansas series on April 20 — again, strange poetic justice around Ole Miss, as that’s the game before the Governor’s Cup game in Pearl.

- Mangum is also tied for 5th in school history in career doubles with 54. He’s currently doubling once per 9 at-bats, meaning he would need an additional 153 at-bats to tie Travis Chapman’s record of 71. If he plays in every game and continues to average 4.09 at-bats per game, he’ll have no trouble recording 153 at-bats this year; now it’s on him to continue averaging a double per 9 at-bats, or at least something close to it so the postseason games can get him there.

What we know and what we don't after two weeks of baseball

By Brett Hudson

Those of you that are OG Twitter followers of mine know that I live my life in a daily war against #SmallSampleSize takes, so I’m taking that into account but also try to make some meaningful statements about the baseball team. Now I sit back and hope I don’t get featured on Freezing Cold Takes in April.

We Know: MSU will be better at catcher

As we discussed on the season preview episode of Dogpile, Mississippi State effectively had two catchers ranging between average to slightly below average defenders last year, so they rode whichever one had the hot bat. This year, they have much more at their disposal.

It’s just a six-game sample, but Dustin Skelton seems to have made some serious strides as a defender. (Which will surprise no one who read my feature on the catching coach, Kyle Cheesebrough.) Plus Skelton has more home runs in the first two weeks of 2019 than he had in 2017 and 2018 combined.

MSU has wasted no time turning to the freshman Hayden Jones, who displayed a weapon of mass destruction attached to his throwing arm this weekend. He can improve in other aspects of defense, but he did not bow to the challenge of Southern Miss pitching, getting a hit in each of the games he played in, one of them a double.

We’ve gone this far and still haven’t mentioned Marshall Gilbert, who is returning after weeks of quality play last year and went 2-4 in starting at DH this weekend.

The days of forcing Josh Lovelady to catch literally every single game, taking his intangible benefits alongside his low batting average, are over. Catcher has the makings of a plus position for the Bulldogs.

We Don’t Know: What second base will look like

Replacing Hunter Stovall’s glove was going to be borderline impossible, thus I expected MSU to take defensive regression at that position. The hope was his replacement would bring enough of a bat to still make it a plus position.

I really expected that to be Gunner Halter, a guy who came from junior college with an awesome bat and work to do on the defensive end. It seems the coaching staff had a similar level of confidence in him, but then he got subbed out of the second game of the Southern Miss series for Landon Jordan, who started the final game.

I’m not giving up on Halter yet, even after he went 0-for-7 against Southern Miss. The point of this is the expectation was for Halter to be the every day second baseman all year, and now that’s not as solid.

Again, I’m not saying second base won’t be a plus position. I’m saying we don’t know who will be getting the innings to try to make it a plus position. 

We Know: The top of the lineup will always have something

No one thinking rationally would’ve expected this start from Rowdey Jordan (.154 batting average, striking out in 26.9 percent of his at-bats compared to 20.7 percent last year). Yet, the Bulldogs still got 10 hits from the 1-4 spots in the lineup on Saturday and Sunday, after moving Jordan down, and of course won both games.

Jake Mangum is the constant, and the cast of Jordan Westburg (1.035 OPS), Tanner Allen (17 RBI in seven games) and Elijah MacNamee (three of his seven hits going for extra bases) gives MSU options. Assuming Rowdey Jordan will start hitting like Rowdey Jordan again soon, that’s four guys for the three spots behind Mangum.

It’s unlikely more than one of those guys will be slumping at a given time, but even if it happens, you could still turn to the quality contact from Justin Foscue in a pinch. MSU should always have something it can depend on from the top of the order.

We Know: The bullpen has as many options as it’s had in three years

Jared Liebelt and Trysten Barlow both had ERAs north of 13 last year, combining to allow a batting average of .348. One year later, Liebelt pitched 2.2 scoreless, hitless innings in a crucial series win over Southern Miss; Barlow got four high-leverage outs in the Sunday win that clinched the series.

They are a microcosm of a bullpen depth that MSU has not had in my time here, this being my third baseball season. Think about this: the Bulldogs won a series with a national spotlight on it and never used Peyton Plumlee, the guy that was nearly its Sunday starter. Because they have so many options.

For some reason I’ve never been able to shake the moment at the SEC Tournament in 2017 when then-coach Andy Cannizaro said there were exactly six pitchers on the roster he trusted with the ball. With the early returns on some returnees and the promising crop of newcomers, I don’t anticipate MSU having the thin bullpen it’s survived with the last two seasons.

We Don’t Know: If that bullpen will perform come SEC play

Here’s a list of current Bulldog relievers that made it through last year with a sub-4.00 ERA and at least 5 innings pitched:

Riley Self.

That’s the full list.

Barlow and Liebelt performing the way they did against a solid Southern Miss lineup gives reason for hope, but it’s far from doing it four weeks in a row in league play.

The same goes for all of these freshmen. Yes, Colby White throws gas. I think we all agree Jack Eagan and Brandon Smith have looked excellent in their debuts, and Cole Gordon looks like he picked up right where he left off. But the SEC schedule gives MSU a true proving ground to begin: a road trip to Florida before home series with Auburn and LSU. I’m going to wait until then to make any declarative statements about the bullpen.

MSU Mailbag — Feb. 21, 2019

I was surprised by how much love there was for my Twitter thread of Mississippi State baseball players and their walkup/warmup music, so why wouldn’t we start there?

Hello, Cody Perkins (@cody17perkins) — Who has the best walkout song one week into the season? Who had the best ever?

This being my third year on the beat, I’m far under qualified to answer the greatest ever debate, but I can dive into recent history with the best of them.

My passion for the fantastic saxophone riff in Elijah MacNamee’s walkup is well-established, so I don’t have to wax poetic about that. Thus, I think my answer is Gunner Halter: Grillz by Nelly. Y’all gotta remember, I’m 26 years old, I grew up around the turn of the millennium. Hearing that song was the best kind of a throwback, and I love Gunner for bringing that song back into my existence with each AB.

Close runners-up include Marshall Gilbert (the epic drum riff from Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight) and Cole Gordon (Immigrant Song/Led Zeppelin.

From @dalemo830 — Are you disappointed MacNamee is sticking with alternating walkout songs instead of permanent sax?

At first I was, no doubt. But upon realizing the song he chose, I grew to be OK with it. I think it’s the meaning/pun involved that makes it acceptable. If he were to simply take away from sax playings just to play another good song, I might be disappointed, but come on, it’s Return of the Mac as Mac returns to the plate. I can live with that.

We’ve got a few more baseball questions, so let’s hit all of them at once, shall we? @lpchowdog saw something on Six Pack Speak about how balls just go deeper with the new Left Field Lofts and he was hoping I can add to the debate.

To be honest, LPchowdog, it’s a little too early to tell. I need more data.

Think of all the factors going into this. Temperature can play a particularly big factor here. Alignment, too: it’s easy to see how alignment can change depth. Plus, this early into the new stadium’s life, there just hasn’t been enough action in left field. I think we need more data to really study this thing.

Does nine months sound like a fair timeline?

Hello, New Dude (@CP_2) — What do you think about the HR light show?

I don’t mind it. I’m sure it irks the baseball traditionalist crowd out there, but that’s not me. Here’s why: I like baseball, and I want it to continue being played generations from now.

Any activity in society has to adapt to continue being played. Imagine if football never left the leather helmets: the deaths in the sport would’ve taken off, probably sometime in the 50s or 60s, and the game probably would’ve never reached the 90s as people realized it’s too deadly to continue on. Baseball has had to adapt countless times over the years, from the live ball era to ball park adaptations to financial structures and more. Sometimes those adaptations feel strange at the time, but the game would not continue on in future generations without them.

If light shows after home runs and a little more freedom for celebration as a whole is what it takes to reinvigorate youth in baseball again, then I’m cool with it.

And of course, always the most pressing question around the Bulldog baseball team. It comes from @MSULewis — Will State host a baseball regional?

This weekend will be a solid measuring stick, if Mother Nature allows those games to happen. But I will say this: I find a few things about this crop of newcomers pretty convenient.

I made this point on the episode of Dogpile, Matt Wyatt and I’s new baseball podcast, that we recorded earlier this morning, so find that in your platform of choice for the full description of it all. The short version is this team needed a second baseman, a few DH options, bullpen arms and more options at catcher and the newcomers have filled all voids. A team with no holes has a really good chance of getting through the SEC well enough to host a regional, and there is at least a chance that this team can live up to that. Now we wait for the season to tell us one way or the other.

Ok, so we have a serious and intriguing women’s basketball question before a pair of nonsense questions to end it. Rob Montgomery, @10RobertWilliam, asks: What’s the simplest answer to explain why there has been so much parity at the top of women’s hoops?

Elite players feel like they can compete for championships somewhere other than UConn and Tennessee. It took a while to prove that, but now it’s been proven, and thus the talent distribution is more wide.

Take a look at the sport between 1995-2010, 16 years. UConn and Tennessee won 12 of those 16 titles. Four more times one of those two schools was the runner-up — and all four times it was Tennessee losing to UConn in the national title game. If you’re an elite prospect in women’s basketball for that long period of time, and competing for championships is a top priority (as it is for many), why would you seriously entertain anyone other than UConn or Tennessee?

Since then, good coaches have built strong programs elsewhere and taken that monopoly apart (even with UConn winning four title in a row from ’13 to ’16). Baylor got going under Kim Mulkey; Vic Schaefer helped win a title at Texas A&M and now has Mississippi State at a similar level. We’re even seeing different programs in there now: Syracuse, Louisville, Stanford, they’ve all gotten to the highest level of the sport at times in recent history.

It was more difficult to bring down a top team then because they had 90 percent of the top talent. That percentage has slid down now to the point that, in a given year, the top 10 prospects might spread themselves over six or seven schools, maybe more, as opposed to concentrating as many as possible within three or four. The same is even more true in the second tier of talent, and that’s why top teams fall more often these days: it’s infinitely more likely for them to face teams with an at least comparable talent level than it was even 10 years ago.

(rap horn) NONSENSE TIME. @sbcmortgageman — If you could pick any number between 1 and say, 69, which number would you choose?

What a nice range of numbers that is. Random selection is such a beautiful thing sometimes, isn’t it?

My answer is 32, because at the time of this publication, that’s the number of guaranteed opportunities remaining to step inside that unbelievable baseball stadium known as the new Dudy Noble Field. (I know that’s not the answer you’re hoping for but I also know you’ll like the thought behind it. See? Got ya.)

And finally, from @BearionLedger — Ever thought of starting a newspaper? P.S. I want my own column.

I have my own newspaper, sir. It’s called the Hudson Report here on mattwyattmedia.com. It’s a digital newspaper that publishes randomly. The delivery people hate this system, but at least they’re all allowed to make side hustles as Uber drivers.

While I mull over your pitch of a column on this fine home for journalism, allow me to write a headline for this Mailbag and check it twice.

Stingray suing Barstool for negligence and invasion of privacy

By Brett Hudson

Former Mississippi State superfan Steven “Stingray” Ray has filed a civil lawsuit against Barstool for negligence, invasion of privacy and wantonness, defined as a disposition to willingly inflict pain and suffering on others. The suit was filed in Tuscaloosa Circuit Court on Feb. 15. No lawyer is listed as representing Ray.

The suit also lists WorldStarHipHop as a defendant.

Ray became an internet figure in the Mississippi State athletics community for his opinions and rants on the teams, to the point that he was invited on an episode of the Comedy Central show Tosh.0 for what it called a Web Redemption. The Twitter account, @stevenray28, has since been suspended, but only after Ray publicly denounced his MSU fandom, crediting treatment by the fan base at large. He was photographed in Southern Miss and Ole Miss apparel in the fall.

The suit acknowledges that role gave Ray, “a modest online presence.” The suit uses one example of Ray sharing a photo of himself on a birthday lunch at Hooters with a waitress. Barstool, according to the lawsuit, took the picture and added the words, “how can someone look like a child and a child molester at the same time.” The lawsuit alleges Barstool did such without Ray’s consent and, “in a willful, wanton and malicious manner..”

Later, in the intentional infliction of emotional distress portion of the lawsuit, it states Barstool, “did so only with hopes of gain in mind, that the publication of this altered photo have damaged the reputation of the Plaintiff (Ray).”

The lawsuit also states Ray is, “entitled to recover against the defendants for injuries, damages and losses proximately caused by their publication as set forth in the Complaint.” It states Ray is entitled to Punitive Damages that are not exactly defined in the complaint.

MSU catchers benefitting from a college baseball rarity

By Brett Hudson

Chris Lemonis sees the most value in Kyle Cheesebrough when he looks over and sees Cheesebrough fuming mad about something that isn’t immediately clear.

It’s happened more than once, and it’s exactly what Lemonis wants from Cheesebrough. Lemonis wants that specific set of eyes trained on the craft that he honed for years as a player and spent more years teaching others to practice: catching.

Cheesebrough may be listed as Mississippi State’s baseball camps coordinator/volunteer assistant coach, but in the practical sense, he is MSU’s catching coach. It’s a rare commodity to have — colleges can only have two full-time assistants and one volunteer, and with one assistant coach dedicated to pitching, it’s unlikely to have a former catcher on staff. But Cheesebrough is just that, and all involved expect that experience to pay off for MSU catchers.

“There’s not many staffs in the country that have catching coaches. I’ve been on staffs where I’ve had to coach catchers, even though I never caught,” Lemonis said. “I’m watching the hitters or the fielders, but he’s locked in on the catcher and it’s nice to have those eyes working with them. Our catchers have had a pretty good fall.”

The same can be said for the weeks leading up to Friday’s season opener against Youngstown State.

Not only does Cheesebrough know catching, but he knows catching for Lemonis, having played for him when he was an assistant at Louisville. Coaching was always Cheesebrough’s goal — he’s the son of a high school football coach — and all of his coaches at Louisville knew it. He landed a spot on the Louisville staff for three years, alongside Lemonis, and then followed Lemonis to Indiana. Cheesebrough was an assistant for Lemonis for all four years at Indiana and followed him to take the same set of responsibilities at MSU.

This is Cheesebrough’s calling: using all of his catching experience to develop young catchers.

“Catching is what I’ve done my entire life,” Cheesebrough told Matt Wyatt Media. “I’ve done it. I have the experiences of what they’ve gone through. I’m not some guy just throwing balls at you or throwing dirt balls at you, I’ve been there, I know what you’re going through.

“If I was a driver’s ed teacher and I’ve never driven a car, you’re not going to trust me. It’s the same thing. I try to give them as much experience as I can.”

All told, Cheesebrough wants to develop his catchers to become good professional prospects. They won’t be asked to do so at MSU, but he’d like for them to develop mentally to the point that they can call their own games. If any one player takes over and becomes the all-knowing veteran, Cheesebrough is not above incorporating that player into the pitch calling conversation.

Therein lies Cheesebrough’s ultimate goal for his catchers. He wants them to have a mental command of the game, then develop the confidence to let that command be known.

“I want to see our guys see the game as I see it. There are so many things — when a guy’s going to steal, when there might be a bunt — they have to see those things coming,” Cheesebrough said. “I guess expecting the game and what’s about to happen. When you have a mature guy and they understand that, they can put on their own bunt defense or they know the call I’m about to be making.

“For me, I could always tell when I was warming a guy up what he had: was his breaking ball sharp, was his fastball a little faster, if he’s not trusting it. The trust factor they have in each other and the trust they have to relay it to us. There’s a lot of things we all as a staff and as a unit, there has to be a high level of trust. Whether it’s (Dustin) Skelton, (Marshall) Gilbert, (Luke) Hancock or (Hayden) Jones, those guys have to trust what they see to tell us, ‘This guy’s not right,’ or, ‘This guy’s great today, let’s ride him out.’”

Skelton recognizes he was not an excellent defensive catcher early in his career, but feels much better about that part of his game going into this season and credits Cheesebrough for that. Skelton thinks he is a better thrower to all three bags and notices the blocking and receiving work Cheesebrough gets them while maintaining their bodies.

Cheesebrough’s subjects will need to feel good physically in order to live under his microscope.

As MSU’s practical catching coach, he sees the game through that lens. If a catcher doesn’t block a ball that allows a runner to go to second, then the pitcher throws a bad fastball hit for a RBI single, many would blame the pitcher; Cheesebrough will blame the catcher. In his mind, if his catcher had blocked that ball and stopped the scoring runner at third, maybe the pitcher gets back on track and retires the inning, preventing the run.

It’s a high standard, but it’s the one Lemonis wants Cheesebrough to hold. Cheesebrough said they like to call themselves Catching U with their run of success at the position, and Cheesebrough was brought to MSU to make that more than internal tagline.