Texas women’s basketball is heading back to the Final Four for the first time in 22 years.
The No. 1-seeded Lady Longhorns have reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament three times in head coach Vic Schaefer’s first four years with the team, but their past tournaments have ended there.
On Monday night, however, UT defeated another Texas team, TCU, to advance.
Danny Davis, a sports reporter for the Austin American Statesman, joined the Standard talk about what happened the outlook for the Lady Longhorns. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Now before we get ahead of ourselves, I know you were at the regional finals in Birmingham on Monday. We’ll talk about UT in just a moment, but first, gotta give a nod to TCU. This was the program’s first Elite Eight appearance in school history.
What was the mood like in the arena on Monday night with these two Texas teams – both with a lot on the line?
Danny Davis: For a game between two Texas teams that was being played in Alabama, I thought it was a pretty good crowd.
The Texas fans were there. TCU fans were there and very, very loud. I think they were excited to kind of experience this Elite Eight run, which is something that they had never done before. They were trying to get to their first-ever Final Four and they’re really excited.
No one likes to lose. I’m sure there are a lot of disappointed fans and players, but they were also very excited that they got to experience this.
Texas player Madison Booker shoots the ball against TCU during the NCAA Playoff Regional final game at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Ala., on Monday.
Courtesy of Texas Athletics
In the end, the Longhorns beat the Horned Frogs 58-47. That ended what many, including Texas sophomore Madison Bookers, called an “Elite Eight hump.” Tell us more about what that is exactly.
I mean, three of the first four years of the Vic Schaefer era at Texas, they had reached the Elite Eight. – sometimes as a surprise team. That 2021 team was kind of a surprise run, but the 2022, the 2024 teams were expected to get there. They were expected to get to the Final Four, and they just could not get over that hump.
Last year, they ran into a really hot-shooting North Carolina State team. Two years ago, they ran into Stanford, could not beat Stanford like they did in the regular season. And then South Carolina, in that 2021 season, South Carolina was just a machine and Texas just could not win that game.
So they’ve been trying and trying and trying to get to the Final Four. Hadn’t been done since 2003 when I was in high school, which is a long time ago. They finally got over that hump and finally got a win in that Elite Eight round, got everything working in unison and got it done.
Yeah, but I wonder whether or not that’s a real thing. I mean, you look at Monday’s victory, do you think it was the experience that put them over the top? Why do you think Texas women continue to go so far in the tournament for the past four years?
Yeah, I mean, the NCAA tournament, if you want a championship, you have to win six games and that means you can’t have one off night. It means putting together back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back, just good games and you can’t have an off night. In those three years that they got to the Elite Eight and lost, they just had an off night.
And on Monday night, offensively, they weren’t great, but defensively they were just spectacular. And that was a good TCU team that Texas shut down. They got enough offense, defense was working fine, and they just had a good game. They did not have an off night, TCU did, and that’s what happens.
Sometimes, in the NCAA tournament, the best team may not win. It’s just the team that has to six straight really good games and no off nights.
Alright, at this point, let’s turn to the Final Four matchup on Friday: Texas facing off against another No. 1 seed – we’re talking South Carolina. Your thoughts on that game?
I mean, obviously, if you’re a Texas fan, you’ve been paying attention. You know that Texas has played South Carolina three times this season.
Two of those games were not good. That’s two of three Texas’ losses this season, but they did beat South Carolina in Austin, so this game is going to be more of a neutral court than the two losses because that was in Greenville, which is right down the road from Columbia, and then obviously they lost on South Carolina’s campus.
So it’s more of a neutral court, but South Carolina fans travel pretty well. So I’m sure there’s gonna be lots of lots of maroon in that crowd.
But these are two, I think, kind of even teams. I don’t expect this to be a high-scoring game. Both teams can play defense. Both team’s have spectacular coaches. Dawn Staley is probably the best coach in the country and Vic Schaefer is definitely top five.
So it’s going to be good a game – probably low-scoring – but I think there’s no secrets between these teams, which should be interesting.
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Well, as you look at UT’s season, what do you think the biggest takeaway’s been? Breaking into the Final Four again? Maybe Madison Booker being named SEC Player of the Year? What do you think?
I think the biggest thing was just them finally getting to the Final Four.
I mean, this was a team that they’ve had these expectations, especially the last two or three years, and just haven’t been able to get it done. This year they came in with a lot of hype. They’re a top-five team preseason and they finally put it together.
Rori Harmon came back healthy, Madison Booker took the next step in her career and a bunch of other players, including some freshmen, stepped up and they got it done.
But as Vic told us yesterday, the job’s not finished. They now expect to be winning that national championship in [three] days. So we’ll see if they can get that done.
You want to make any predictions?
It’s really hard to pick against Dawn Staley, but I think the Longhorns have a good chance of doing it. But I’ll probably pick South Carolina on Friday.
