Women's Watch: Benching 'Itty Bitty' was a big miss

Even if you're not a big fan of women's college basketball, you probably know all about "Itty Bitty" and her super-duper shot heard 'round the world.

"Itty Bitty," also known as Morgan William, is the 5-foot-5 junior point guard from Mississippi State who dethroned mighty Connecticut in the NCAA national semifinals last weekend with a buzzer-beating jumpshot at the end of overtime.

Her jumper catapulted Mississippi State into the national title game and shocked UConn and the world by sending the four-time defending national champions home and abruptly ending their record 111-game winning streak in the process.

So "Itty Bitty," who also scored 41 points against Baylor in the Elite Eight win that sent Mississippi State to the Final Four, had become the unofficial darling of the women's tournament.

What would she do in the national championship game as the topper?

Well, not much, as it turned out.

William played just 23 minutes and scored only 8 points in Sunday's national championship against South Carolina, which eventually won the game and its first title, 67-55.

The kicker was that William didn't play a single second in the entire fourth quarter.

Foul trouble? Nope. Injury? Nope.

It was just the whim of head coach Vic Schaefer, who had played William for 44 minutes against UConn and 40 minutes against Baylor and gushed and gushed about her after her heroics against both of those teams.

Sure, William wasn't quite herself against South Carolina. Not only was she being guarded well, but she seemed tired, lethargic, and who could blame her? She poured her entire soul into those Baylor and UConn wins.

Schaefer, who reportedly ran a tough practice last Saturday, which was the day after the overtime win over UConn and the day before the national title game (South Carolina coach Dawn Staley had a walk-through for her team on the same day), suggested that William didn't have her usual energy level during the national title game. He also said that reserve guard Jazzmun Holmes, who subbed in for William, was playing fairly well against the Gamecocks. So he stayed with Holmes.

Perhaps Holmes did play better than William against South Carolina.

But who cares? To sit out one of your best players, the player whose back you rode to two of the biggest wins in program history, for the entire fourth quarter of the NATIONAL TITLE GAME is absurd, and quite honestly unfair.

I'm all for coaches putting their most competitive players on the floor. And yes, sometimes good players aren't so good.

But I would argue that William would always be one of Mississippi State's best players, whether she's fresh or exhausted.

That being said, playing Holmes instead is fine, if she's the better option. But was she the best option for the entire 10 minutes of the fourth quarter? Better than William could have been for even just a few of those minutes?

I doubt that. But even if that were the case, you mean to tell me that when the game was firmly in South Carolina's control that Schaefer STILL couldn't put William in for the final minutes?

Playing in the Final Four and the national championship game is as much about the competition and the quest for the title as it is about the experience. That's why in lopsided games, coaches clear their benches, so that all of their players get the chance to say they "played" in a national title game.

Didn't William deserve at least a few minutes in the fourth quarter after all she had done for her team over the tournament? Why did it seem like Schaefer was treating her like a liability instead of a valued treasure?

I had really liked what I had seen out of Schafer up to that point. He seemed humble and fun and so grateful for that moment in time.

I think he shot a big-time air ball with the way he handled William in the national championship game.

To her credit, William hit nothing but net with the way she handled herself when asked about her coach's fourth-quarter decision.

"He's the coach. I'm just a player," William said. "Whatever he thinks is best, that's best for the team."

That's an Itty Bitty showing some big-time class.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

Follow Patricia on Twitter: @babcockmcgraw