Everything Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said after Players Era Festival win over South Carolina

Texas head women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer spoke to the media following the team’s 66-64 win over South Carolina in the Players Era Festival championship game on Thursday. Here’s everything he had to say.

Opening statement

“Well, I can’t say that I’ve ever seen this before in my career. We’ve played back-to-back (games against the) No. 2 and No. 3 (teams) in two successive days. I’ve never seen that. Maybe in the NCAA Tournament in ’17. But to do it on back-to-back days… These kids all went 40 minutes two days in a row. I think Jordan (Lee) went 39 and change, came out for a heartbeat. And then, these three guards were our three guards for two straight days against the best of the best.

“Look, we all know UCLA is going to win a lot of games. They’re a great team. South Carolina, they’re going to win a lot of games. They’re a great team. Both are well-coached by Hall of Fame coaches. But these kids for these two days, I’m telling you, I’ve never seen it. To have to go back-to-back… And these three guards, I thought tonight, with five minutes to go, they hit their stride. And that’s when you know you’ve got something.

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball! 🏀

“I thought we answered. When we were down eight with a minute or something to go in the third, I told them, ‘Let’s try to get this to four to start the quarter.’ When we got to the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter, (Madison) Booker was in the huddle going, ‘Coach, we’ve got this.’ I thought we had great poise. And, when I looked at my players, I thought, ‘She’s right.’

“There was a lot of confidence in this group. This team is really special. They showed the country today, and you people in the audience, an incredible amount of toughness, competitive spirit and resilience. When they made their run — and they’re always going to make a run — they answered. That says a lot about my kids and their character, their heart, their toughness. And we always take pride (in it). They don’t like me to tell them they get punked. Well, they didn’t get punked today. They really played their guts out.

“To be in the position we were in when we came here and to answer the bell back-to-back days against two great teams, great players — what an event. I need to have my head examined for signing up for this for four straight years. We do it for the kids, obviously, right?

“But, man, what an incredible effort by these kids today. And, again, I thought they looked better today than they did yesterday in the second half. They executed some really good stuff down the stretch. For November, their offensive execution was really good; tonight, really good, especially in the second half. And we shot 47 (percent) in the fourth and 50 in the third. That speaks volumes for their focus, not being tired, their toughness.

“I’m extremely proud of this group. I mean, it took everybody that played and everybody on the bench. When we get some kids healthy, we’re going to be even better. But, man, it’s a pretty special two days. A lot of you I know have seen a lot of basketball in your day. Pretty special group you just watched for two straight days playing two great teams.”

You’ve had Rori (Harmon) by your side helping you build this program over the past five years. What has she meant to you and Texas women’s basketball?

“You have to understand, she’s the only player in the history of Texas women’s basketball to score 1,200 points and have 700 assists — and counting. She sets the record tonight and takes the record from a player in Kamie Ethridge, who played for Jody Conradt on that national championship team — and played for her for many years. For all of us — and for me, especially — we have a great respect for the history of Texas and women’s basketball because it’s really important there.

“I took the school playing in Starkville, Mississippi, to Houston, Texas, a bunch trying to recruit her to Mississippi State. She was the first one because, if you are going to build a good program, it starts with the point guard. You can have all the size in the world; if you ain’t got any guard play — we proved that tonight — you got no chance. And she’s somebody I really wanted.

“Once I got the job at Texas, her and her mom had the conversation, and it was like, ‘I don’t have to go all the way to Starkville, Mississippi. I can just go down the road to Austin, Texas. She was really that first brick in building a program.

“Again, I’ve been there, I’ve seen them all. I’ve seen her in her good times, her bad times. She continues to grow. But she is where she is because she invests in her craft. She doesn’t show up five minutes before practice starts and doesn’t leave when the horn sounds. She’s there an hour before getting shots up — just like Booker, just like Jordan, just like most of my team. That’s why she is who she is.

“And bless her heart… Last year, she’s just trying to play after having a pretty traumatic injury. She’s trying to get her body ready instead of her skill set ready. Well, this past summer, now she can work on her skill set. And she’ll be the first to tell you, she’s surrounded by some really good players. We have a lot of weapons. And it makes her job that much easier.

GamecocksW newsletter: WBB coverage delivered straight to your inbox! 🏀

“She’s had a game this year where she had 12 assists, I think, and no turnovers — or maybe one. But she makes all the right decisions. How many turnovers did she have today? Two. She’s nine (assists) to two today, so four-and-a-half to one. She knows, running our offense, getting us into what we need to get into, that now she’s getting back to where she’s getting her shot back. And I think that’s where she struggled a little bit a year ago. But she’s got it back because she’s in the gym.

“She’s meant everything to us. She’s been a big part of our building this program. And it’s allowed us to go get players like Jordan and Madison and the rest of this team. I told them, ‘We had nine players available. And if I go down and look at your rating of each of you, you’re pretty good players. So, we weren’t going to have an excuse coming out of here.’

“Well, we only had nine available and seven that really play a lot. That was not going to be our excuse. If we stubbed our toe, we were going to own it. But when you look at Rori and Booker and Jordan and the rest of our team, there’s some really good players in that group. And, right now, they have great chemistry, and they are tough.”

You review stats every press conference. Are there some that you go to specifically? And, as a point of protocol, do you always bring players — win, lose or draw — to the podium?

“No question. We’re going to own it, whether we played well or didn’t. That’s the maturity of our players, that’s the character of them. And that’s what we try to teach and instill in them. We’re fortunate we don’t have to come in here after an L, but every now and again it happens. And we’ll own it.

“On here, I have circles for good things, boxes for bad things. So, if somebody’s got a lot of turnovers, they’ve got a box around that number. If they don’t have any turnovers, they got a circle around it. If they shot a good percentage, they got a circle; if they got a bunch of rebounds, they got a circle.

“I’m always attentive of this. I got it from Coach (Gary) Blair, who I worked for for many years. It’s just a way for us to identify… And they’re always looking, ‘How many circles do I have? How many boxes do I have?’ They’re wanting to.

“The first place they’re going is the turnover box. Yesterday, we played so well the first half, only had one turnover. We were really on point. Again, I thought, tonight, we were really on point down the stretch executing. I think we did have a couple of turnovers late. But, boy, making that run, we were getting great looks — the ones we were wanting out of each of those sets. We executed some really good stuff.”

From your perspective, what are you taking away from those bigs down low? Obviously, your guards were leading the way in a lot of ways, but those bigs down in the paint were battling both games.

“That’s my two-headed monster. I like to have two of them, and those two really play off of each other very well.

“I finished second on Breya (Cunningham) coming out of high school. I thought I was going to get her. Didn’t get her. But you wish kids well, and you never know what’s going to happen. I was pretty fired up when we had a chance to get her back.

“She and Kyla (Oldacre), you’re talking about two amazing young ladies. They’re just incredible. They’ve got some stuff to them. You better have some stuff to play down there in this league, and they’ve got it.

“But, again, they’ll be the first to tell you our guards really help play post defense by the pressure they put on the ball. That’s just a focal point for us. I hate to say that in public because I don’t want to give away the secret sauce, but it is what it is. You can have all the size in the world, but if you don’t have guard play, you ain’t winning. You can win games with guard play and no size, but you can’t win a championship without both. So, we always try to have both.

“Those two kids are tough. They’ve got some stuff to them. Yes, we’ll go out tonight, and they’ll be two of the jokingest-around, laughingest kids we’ve got. But when the lights come on, I’m glad I’ve got those two because they can do what we need to have done. And in the league that we live in, and that neighborhood, we just went against one of them. They’ve got a lot of them, too. So, it’s really important that you have kids like that.

“But it’s more than just size. Those kids are cerebral. They’re smart, but they are tough. And they ain’t backing down from anybody. That’s really important.”

NEW! Message board for South Carolina Women’s Basketball!