KELLENBERGER

Who MSU, Vic Schaefer are is because of where he has been

Hugh Kellenberger
The Clarion-Ledger

DALLAS — Vic Schaefer’s road to the Final Four began 27 years ago in the PE office at Milby High School.

Sam Houston State had just called, for a third time. They really wanted him to come up and interview for the women’s basketball head coaching job, but Schaefer kept on saying no.

He didn’t think he wanted it. He had been there once before, working with the men. The coach got fired, Schaefer’s father died and he moved home to take the same job he had before — freshman boys’ basketball coach and head tennis coach — and watch over his mother.

But Boyce Honea was eavesdropping, and one of Houston’s legendary high school basketball coaches insisted Schaefer should apply, if only for the experience. “I’ll cover your classes,” Honea said.

So Schaefer went, driving 75 minutes north of Houston in order to get his resume in by the noon deadline.

On Friday, nearly three decades later, the now-56 year old Schaefer will be the head coach in his first Final Four. His Mississippi State Bulldogs have never been here before, and it was through his force of will that they finally reached the point (in his fifth season) where they have the opportunity to play juggernaut UConn in a national semifinal.

That one conversation and one decision in 1990, though, started it all.

“That's kind of how it all began,” Schaefer said.

***

Sam Houston State clearly had no problem identifying a future coaching talent. But it had plenty of other issues.

It was a former NAIA school trying to live that Division I life on its old NAIA budget. Schaefer’s first budget was $36,000, for everything — team travel, lodging, food, recruiting, postage, even game officials. Everything came out of one meager pot.

Which meant Schaefer had to be creative, and strict. So he’d call The Black Eyed Pea, a casual chain eatery throughout Texas, and ask, “If I bring in my team, will you give us free sweet tea?” Then he’d tell his team they could only order from the left side of the menu, but not the more expensive right.

Schaefer would eat his chicken fried chicken and fried okra, and look out over the table at his team. That was Sam Houston State’s other problem: its new women’s basketball coach had no connection at all in the sport, and inherited all of three players.

He recruited four more out of the Houston Chronicle, and four junior college girls no one else wanted. That was it, and the now 30-year-old coach was going at it in a Southland Conference that had plenty of damn good coaches in it. He might have been the only one also washing the team's uniforms.

“I wasn’t ready for that job more than a man on the moon,” Schaefer said. “I had to learn real quick, and it was tough. Those first three years, it was hard. Really difficult. But I learned and adapted, and things got a little bit better as time went on.”

***

To this day Gary Blair can remember the first time he laid eyes on Schaefer.

A Converse rep had set up a golf outing for himself, a coach fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance and the new guy in the Southland. Here comes Schaefer for a 1 p.m. tee time with polyester golf pants on and Croakies around his sunglasses.

“I said, ‘Oh my god this is a used car salesman,’” Blair said.

But they had a heck of a time that day, and Blair even won a little bit of money. They were fast friends, the guy with the best job and best budget in the league and the guy with the worst of both.

“A lot of times we would go to ballgames and state tournaments together,” Blair said. “He couldn’t get the kids I was trying to get, but he could get the kids that were going to overachieve and that’s what he did.”

Still, it took a while to win at Sam Houston State. But by year 4 it won 10 conference games, and in year 5 Schaefer won 18 games overall and was named conference coach of the year. It wasn’t like things were getting any better behind the scenes as a result, though.

“They cut (the budget) 44 percent after year 1,” Schaefer said. “It was $20,574 my second year.”

A change was coming, and his buddy Blair was going to provide it, thanks to his job as the head coach at Arkansas.

***

Schaefer really wanted to make it work at Sam Houston State. He was convinced he was ready to turn the corner, especially after the 18-win season in 1995-96. He had talked to Blair about jobs before, but Schaefer always came back to staying where he was.

But there he was, in a $35,000 a year job, mired in $25K of debt with one-year-old twins, Blair and Logan, at home. And a wife, Holly, that was from Arkansas. And there was Gary Blair, offering a job in Fayetteville.

“That was the easiest sell I ever had,” Blair said. “I got him paid $55 (thousand), he got a raise as soon as he got there and a camp check.”

Plus, “a courtesy car and $1,000 in Reebok apparel,” Schaefer says with a laugh.

So that’s how a 15-year relationship with Blair as the head coach and Schaefer as his assistant (and defensive guru) began, first at Arkansas and later at Texas A&M. They did great things together: 11 NCAA Tournaments, five Sweet 16s, two Final Fours and the 2011 NCAA Championship.

But it’s not like the plan was for Schaefer to remain an assistant coach forever. He just could not catch a break. He got an interview when Blair left for Texas A&M, but Blair thinks it was only a courtesy on Arkansas’ part. Schaefer interviewed for the North Texas job in 2008, but the school hired Shanice Stephens instead; she was fired three years later, after winning a combined 25 games, and there have been three other coaches since her.

“How do you think North Texas feels right now?” Blair said. “They turned him down.”

***

Vic Schaefer is introduced as Mississippi State's new women's basketball coach in 2012, sitting next to then-athletic director Scott Stricklin.

Scott Stricklin’s phone buzzed in the moments after Mississippi State’s women’s basketball coach, Sharon Fanning-Otis, announced her retirement in February 2012.

It was Amy Ratliff, who had worked with Stricklin at Kentucky and was dating now-Washington coach Mike Neighbors.

“Vic Schaefer,” Ratliff told her old boss, now MSU’s athletic director. “You should hire Vic Schaefer.”

Stricklin shrugged his shoulders at the fairly random text about the coach he was unfamiliar with. Until 15 minutes later another text came in, and this one was from legendary MSU and Texas A&M football coach Jackie Sherrill.

“Scott, you should hire Vic Schaefer,” Sherrill wrote.

Now intrigued, Stricklin called up Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell. He told Stricklin that the Wildcat program changed when Schaefer taught Mitchell his defensive philosophy. Now it’s Baylor coach Kim Mulkey’s turn, and it’s more effusive praise of the Texas A&M assistant.

“This must be a guy,” Stricklin remembers thinking to himself.

It was about 15 minutes into a three-hour conversation about the job that Stricklin became convinced that Schaefer was his next head coach, and then it became about assuring Schaefer that he’d not be in the same position he once was at Sam Houston State. Mississippi State had no history of consistent success in women’s basketball, or much of a fanbase to speak of. But all of that could change.

“I said, ‘Vic, I know if the right person comes in it can happen,’” Stricklin said.

Holly got on board after a campus visit, and one day Schaefer slipped fellow Aggie assistant, Johnnie Harris, a note.

“He wrote, ‘Do you think we can win in Starkville?’” Harris said. “I was being confident and said, ‘Vic, we can win anywhere. But Starkville?’”

But Harris became convinced, and followed Schaefer to inherit a team that was not always ready to change. But eventually they did, and won some games maybe they shouldn’t have that first year.

The year ended though with 13 wins and a 27-point loss to Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Schaefer walked over to Stricklin and apologized.

“I think he was embarrassed,” Stricklin said. “And I said, ‘Don’t worry about it.”

Stricklin, Harris and everyone else connected with Mississippi State knew what was about to become evident to the rest of college basketball: they were on their way.

***

Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs head coach Vic Schaefer hoists the trophy after defeating the Baylor Bears in the finals of the Oklahoma City Regional last week.

Stricklin, before leaving for Florida last year, did everything Schaefer asked. MSU women’s basketball has its own strength and conditioning coordinator, video coordinator and graduate assistant, things it did not before. The travel is better and if Schaefer orders the chicken fried chicken now it’s by choice, not necessity. There have been facility improvements too.

And the fans have come, by the thousands. The program that once drew in the hundreds now averages 6,641 a night. Everybody likes a winner, and that’s part of it. But it’s not all of it.

The Mississippi State women’s basketball team has built a connection with the community. They make the effort, going into the stands after every game to hug you and thank you for coming. It’s not unusual to see 6-foot-7 center Teaira McCowan with a baby in each arm, grinning, or for fans to stuff bags of cookies into the hands of players.

They play an appealing style of basketball, built around unrelenting pressure defense. But they’re also an uptempo team, scoring at least 92 points in three of four NCAA Tournament games so far. It’s fun.

Basically, the program is a reflection of Schaefer. He’s tough, but so honest McCowan signed with MSU in part because Schaefer told her she wouldn’t start as a freshman. He demands a lot out of his team, but still makes them laugh when he occasionally will in a moment of exasperation shout, ‘You guys!” and throw his hands in the air.

He’s not had a whole lot to complain about this season. The Bulldogs are 33-4, climbed to as high as No. 2 nationally in the polls and beat the AP player of the year, Washington’s Kelsey Plum, and No. 1 seed Baylor in the Oklahoma City Regional last weekend. At the beginning of the year Schaefer told his team they could play in a Final Four, and look where they are. Sure they play UConn, winners of 111 straight, next, but if you think the Bulldogs are going to back down now you haven’t been paying attention.

That’s not who Schaefer is, so that’s not what Mississippi State is. The road to now is never going to be what you imagine to be, but it is what it is and will be what you make of it. No one is going to give you anything. You’re going to have go work for it.