How DeeDee Hagemann is displaying maturity for Michigan State women's basketball
EAST LANSING — After nearly helping the Michigan State women's basketball team complete a comeback from a 21-point deficit against Nebraska, DeeDee Hagemann had a message on her phone.
On the other end was Spartan coach Suzy Merchant. She had some encouraging words about Hagemann's 17 points, five steals and five rebounds from a distance.
"She texted me after the game telling me I played my butt off and (was) just giving me some coach point of views," Hagemann said. "We've been communicating on and off."
Hagemann's steady play has been a constant as the Spartans have dealt with adversity on the court and the absence of Merchant, who has been away from the program for the past week following a medical incident.
Associate head coach Dean Lockwood, who has led the Spartans in Merchant's absence, believes Hagemann has shown a lot in her second season as a starting point guard.
"DeeDee, in my opinion, has really matured here in recent games," Lockwood said prior to practice Friday afternoon. "She's leading more, she's much more efficient in what she's doing. ... I think DeeDee is really putting forth some solid defensive effort and making her free throws, which was also big. That's been a problem for us."
The Spartans will need the best of Hagemann again on Sunday when they host rival and No. 18-ranked Michigan at 3 p.m. MSU (11-11, 3-9) will look for its second victory of the season over a ranked team.
Hagemann is averaging 11.3 points, 7.0 assists and 3.0 steals and is shooting 82.3% (14 of 17) from the free-throw line in MSU’s last three games. She has 21 assists and eight turnovers in that span..
"You can't push the fast-forward button on maturation, competitive maturity or those types of things," Lockwood said. "There's a process that everybody follows and it's faster for some and slower for some. I think DeeDee is starting to recognize the things that she needs to do for this basketball team. I think she's seeing the value of her defensive effort and how hard she's playing and what that's giving to us."
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women's basketball: DeeDee Hagemann showing maturity
