For the past eight seasons, Vic Schaefer has constructed a women’s basketball juggernaut at Mississippi State with up-and-coming women’s basketball stars such as Morgan William, Teaira McCowan and Victoria Vivians passing through Starkville.
That construction includes two appearances the NCAA championship game (in 2017 and 2018) before losses to South Carolina and Notre Dame, respectively.
With those eight seasons in the books, Schaefer hopes to recreate the same magic that was in Starkville in Austin, Texas as he will now be the new coach of the Longhorns.
Guess who’s coming to the Forty…🏀🤘🏽 pic.twitter.com/hSAyjbvqTH
— Chris Del Conte (@_delconte) April 5, 2020
The new @TexasWBB Head Coach is Vic Schaefer.
Welcome! 🤘🏾 https://t.co/AHX7mcePyy
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) April 5, 2020
Schaefer compiled over 200 wins with the Bulldogs – a program that has sent both McCowan and Vivians to the WNBA. Both are still teammates with the Indiana Fever.
Statement from Director of Athletics John Cohen on our Women’s Basketball Head Coach Position.#HailState🐶https://t.co/OU8r7HOEh2
— Mississippi State Athletics (@HailState) April 6, 2020
Think we’re all fired up about this one. #HookEm🤘 pic.twitter.com/P1d1i3dwKI
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) April 5, 2020
Our guy @CoachVic_UT! #HookEm pic.twitter.com/SoVSqmvXw7
— Texas Women’s Basketball (@TexasWBB) April 5, 2020
Schaefer is very familiar with the Lone Star State. Prior to arriving in Austin, he was an assistant at his alma mater Texas A&M, where he won a national championship in 2011. He also previously coached at Sam Houston State.
Texas has not released the numbers yet but various reports had Vic Schaefer on track to make $1,650,000 at Mississippi State for the 2020-21 school year. Karen Aston’s base salary for this past season was $515,000 with around $250K in benefits. #HookEm
— Danny Davis (@aasdanny) April 5, 2020
The previous Longhorns coach Karen Aston was released only a few days ago and went 184-83 and also produced WNBA talent such as Imani McGee-Stafford and Ariel Atkins (Washington Mystics). But what more than likely drove the move was a willingness to compete in women’s basketball with a certain school up Interstate 35.
So much for Texas being a football school. The Longhorns hiring of Schaefer back to a state he knows backwards is sure to get the attention of its in-state Big 12 rival Baylor and its coach Kim Mulkey. Pardon the cliché, but it seems recruiting for top women’s hoops talent across the southwest is about to get … well … bigger in Texas.
