The Texas women’s basketball team keeps marking milestones this season.
For the second straight week and the third time this season, the Lady Longhorns were named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association National Team of the Week. This after becoming the first women’s basketball team in 20 years to win three straight games over top ten opponents.
Their last three matchups were victories over South Carolina, Kentucky and this Sunday’s win over LSU. So when the Associated Press rankings came out on Monday, there were some disappointed UT fans learning the Longhorns only reached the No. 2 spot behind Notre Dame.
So what gives? Danny Davis, a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman, recently wrote an article digging into the question. He joined the Standard with the details. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: So you wrote that story before we saw the latest AP poll. What was your argument for thinking the Longhorns should be No. 1?
Danny Davis: Look, there’s three teams that I think all three have valid arguments. When you read the AP poll, you’re happy if you’re Notre Dame and thinking “you’re right” or you’re a little upset if you were Texas or UCLA.
I think Texas has the best resume of those three schools. They’re 9-2 against AP top 25 teams this season. I think they have 13 Q1 wins, which is a metric that the committee used to kind of judge how good of a team you beat at home on a neutral court or away games. There’s different standards for each of those three venues.
But, you know, Texas has the most of those. I think UCLA had ten and Notre Dame now has ten. They all had nine at the time. But they beat Duke on Monday and now they have ten as well.
So just overall, Texas has the better resume of those three. But Notre Dame has won one decisive argument, and that’s that they beat Texas. And I think that’s probably why they were No. 1 on Monday.
Well, let’s talk about the roster. Who are the players on this UT team that stand out that you’ll be watching in the final days of this regular season?
The star player is Madison Booker. She was an all-American last year as a freshman. She’s more than likely going to be an all-American this year. I can’t see a scenario in which she doesn’t earn all-American accolades again.
She’s probably going be the SEC player of the year. It’s either her or the Kentucky point guard, Georgia Amoore, who probably isn’t going to get good enough wins to win that award. So I think Madison’s probably the SEC player of the year.
She’s just a fantastic, versatile sophomore who’s going to be a star. She may end up being Texas’s all-time leading scorer when it’s all said and done. She’s, I think, one of five players to score a thousand points before the end of her sophomore season at Texas. She’s spectacular.
Rori Harmon is the veteran point guard. She’s also the all-American candidate, you know, just the senior leader on those teams. Been around obviously for years and is kind of the face of the program. I think Madison’s more than willing to cede that to her and let Rori kind of take the spotlight. Madison kind of likes to just be chill and just play basketball.
And then they have a bunch of good role players. Taylor Jones is an all-conference player. They have three freshmen who are all very fun to talk to and all have great personalities who are going to shine and in years to come. So top to bottom, I think there’s 14 players on the team, just a bunch of interesting characters and fun personalities. But Madison and Rori are definitely the two stars of the team.
Well, the team is now 26-2 this season. What does the rest of their schedule look like? And what about the SEC championship?
Texas should win out. They’re off this entire week. They don’t play again until Monday, but then they close out the season in Georgia.
They have to go to Georgia. They have to go to Mississippi State, which would be a little interesting because that’s where Vic Schaefer used to work. Then Florida to close out the season. But those are three SEC teams that aren’t expected to be contenders for the title.
So Texas just finished up those four ranked teams. Texas should be able to get to their regular season with three more wins, then the SEC tournament, the NCAA tournament.
Obviously, when you get into a tournament setting, anything can happen. But I’d imagine that Texas is probably going to be favored or one of the co-favorites to win the SEC championship at the SEC Tournament, although it’s in South Carolina. So I’m sure South Carolina is going to have the home court advantage. And then, you know, the NCAA tournament, anything can happen on any given weekend.
Well, let’s talk a little bit about the NCAA tournament, because last year the Longhorns went in a one seed but fell to NC State in the Elite Eight. Like you said, tournaments… It’s a different thing than a regular season game, right? I mean, the pressure’s up. There’s there’s games back-to-back.
What are your projections for the Longhorns this year?
Well, if I was able to predict correctly, I wouldn’t be talking to you all. I would gamble that money. I’d be on some private island somewhere chilling and very, very rich.
But, you know, Texas obviously has a talent, as we saw last year against North Carolina State. North Carolina State played very, very well in that game, shot the ball very efficiently and Texas just played one of its worst games of the season. And that’s what happens. You have one bad day in the tournament on the same day that your opponent’s really good and your season is over.
So, I mean, Texas will probably be a one-seed., assuming nothing crazy happens the next couple weeks. And, you know, they have the talent, but that’s nice on paper. We actually have to go do that on the court. And you have pretty much six really good games and that’ll get you a championship.
But one off day, and that could mark the end of your season.
Well, let’s talk a little more about head coach Vic Schaefer. We just learned he signed a three-year extension on his contract. So what can you tell us about that? And do you attribute a lot of the team success to him?
I mean, obviously, if you’re a Texas basketball fan and you’ve been around this program… That’s not saying that Karen Aston, who was a coach before him, was a bad coach, but she, you know, failed to meet expectations at Texas. And she’s having a pretty good season at UTSA. There’s actually a chance that she may end up in the NCAA tournament coming to Austin for first or second-round games. That’s be kind of interesting if that happens.
But Vic came in and this is a team that’s gone to three Elite Eights in his four years. The one year that they didn’t make it to the Elite Eight was a pretty stunning development in seeing that team lose in the second round.
But Vic is a coach that demands excellence. He took Mississippi State, which was an awful program before he got there, to the national championship game twice. He’s won a national title as an assistant coach at Texas A&M. So this is a guy who knows how to win. He just needs to get over that hump, win that national championship for himself as a head coach.
But obviously he’s done very well. He’s recruited very well. His teams performed very well on the court. You know, Big 12, they won a regular season title, two tournament titles, and they’re contending in the SEC this year.
Texas is getting its money’s worth with him. I think he’s going to probably be the fourth highest-paid coach in college basketball, and the three people ahead of him all won multiple national championships. So that’s fair that he’s right behind them. But obviously, Texas is paying big for him and he’s earning every dollar that he makes in Texas.
