Victor Ernest Schaefer (born March 2, 1961) is an American college basketball coach who is the head women's basketball coach of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

(Texas) Longhorns. He previously served as the head coach for

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univers ...

, from 2012 to 2020, and for

Sam Houston State Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...

, from 1990 to 1997.

Mississippi State

Schaefer was named the Bulldogs’ head coach on March 13, 2012, replacing Sharon Fanning-Otis who retired at the end of the 2012 season. In his tenure at MSU Schaefer has led the Bulldogs to five NCAA tournaments, Four Sweet Sixteen appearances, 3 Elite 8 appearances, 2 Final Fours, and 2 National Runner-up finishes. He also guided MSU to 2 SEC Championship and 1 SEC Tournament Championship, the only conference titles for MSU in any women's team sport. The 2016-17 team made college basketball history by defeating No. 1 Connecticut 66-64 in overtime in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. That victory snapped the Huskies’ record 111-game win streak and sent the Bulldogs to the national championship game in their first Final Four appearance. The UConn win garnered MSU the 2017 ESPY for Best Upset and

Morgan William Morgan William (born July 14, 1996) is an American women's college basketball player who previously played for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. She helped lead the Bulldogs to four appearances in the NCAA tournament, including three Sweet Sixteens ...

a Best Play nomination for her winning bucket. With a 74–68 win at Marquette on November 25, 2019, Schaefer earned his 200th victory as the head coach at Mississippi State. It was just his 256th game at State, making him the second-fastest coach ever to achieve the milestone with an SEC program ahead of hall-of-fame coaches Joe Ciampi (258 games),

Pat Summitt Patricia Susan Summitt (; June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an American women's college basketball head coach who accrued 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coac ...

(259),

Van Chancellor Van Winston Chancellor (born September 27, 1943) is a former college and professional basketball coach. He coached University of Mississippi women's basketball, Louisiana State University women's basketball, and the professional Houston Comet ...

(263), Jim Foster (280) and

Sue Gunter Sue Gunter (May 22, 1939 – August 4, 2005) was an American women's college basketball coach. She is best known as the head coach of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Lady Tigers basketball team. Gunter was inducted into the Women's Basketbal ...

(280). Only Georgia's

Andy Landers Andrew Grady Landers (born October 8, 1952) is a retired American college basketball coach who was head women's basketball coach at the University of Georgia from 1979 to 2015. Landers graduated from Friendsville (Tenn.) High School in 1970, the ...

(251) reached the mark at a faster pace.

Texas

Shortly after the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

prematurely ended the 2019–20 season, Schaefer left Mississippi State to fill the head coaching vacancy at Texas. The timing of the move was unfortunate, as it came shortly after he and his wife had completed a new house on an farm near the Bulldogs' home of Starkville. Nonetheless, in June 2020, Schaefer told

M.A. Voepel M.A. Voepel (formerly Mechelle Voepel) is an American sportswriter. He has reported on women's sports for ESPN since 1996 and has been described by the company as "the foremost authority on women's basketball". Biography M.A. Voepel was born i ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

, Voepel added more detail to Schaefer's ties to the state, noting:

Head coaching record

†NCAA canceled all postseason activities for all college sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaefer, Vic 1961 births Living people American women's basketball coaches Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Texas Mississippi State Bulldogs women's basketball coaches Sam Houston Bearkats women's basketball coaches Texas Longhorns women's basketball coaches Texas A&M Aggies women's basketball coaches Texas A&M University alumni Sportspeople from Austin, Texas Sportspeople from Houston