Carthage native and Mississippi State legend Victoria Vivians is stepping into the next chapter of her basketball career, joining head coach Vic Schaefer’s staff as an assistant coach for the University of Texas women’s basketball program.
The move reunites Vivians with Schaefer, her former collegiate head coach at Mississippi State. Together in Starkville, the pair helped build the Bulldogs into a national powerhouse, highlighted by back-to-back NCAA National Championship game appearances in 2017 and 2018.
Long before her collegiate and professional success, Vivians built a legendary high school career right here in central Mississippi. A five-star recruit out of Scott Central High School in Forest, she was named a two-time Mississippi Miss Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year.
Vivians went on to rewrite the record books at Mississippi State, finishing as the program’s second all-time leading scorer with 2,527 points. A four-time All-American and four-time CSpire Gillom Trophy winner, she was drafted eighth overall in the 2018 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever.
After six seasons in the WNBA, she launched her collegiate coaching career on Sam Purcell’s staff at Mississippi State in 2024 before making the move to Austin to rejoin Schaefer on the Longhorns bench.
