Before the 2021 NCAA Tournament, rampant inconsistency and inexperience hindered head coach Vic Schaefer’s ability to establish his culture at Texas during a COVID-affected year.

The Longhorns entered the tournament tabbed as a No. 6 seed with little hope of making a deep run after having lost three of their last five games. Nonetheless, this ragtag Texas team of just five returning players, three transfers and a whole bunch of freshmen finds itself moving on to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2016.

For all the disadvantages the Longhorns have with experience, they make up for with guts and effort, Schaefer said.

“For these kids, they’re in. They’re all in,” Schaefer said after beating No. 2 seed Maryland on March 28. “They’re a bull locked in a china cabinet, and they’re coming out fighting.” 

Schaefer’s reputation for leading his teams to deep runs in March is well known after he took his former squad, Mississippi State, to three consecutive Final Four appearances and two Championship games. 

The magic hasn’t worn off in his transition to Texas.

Just a month ago, the Longhorns were stumbling to a fifth-place finish in the Big 12 standings after being picked second in the preseason poll. In the last week, however, Texas has defeated two AP Top 10 teams with a tremendous display of newfound confidence and resilience. Now heading into the Elite Eight against No. 1 seed South Carolina, the team is peaking at the right time, sophomore guard Celeste Taylor said.

“When we’re focused and stay together, we know we can get through anything,” Taylor said after the win against No. 3 seed UCLA on March 24. “Just coming out here and showing we had this resiliency in us all along, I think that people are starting to (notice) us and see who we are as a team.”

Texas has morphed into a more complete team during the tournament, as they no longer live and die based on the performance of junior center Charli Collier. Nowhere was this more evident than the team’s round of 32 win against UCLA when Collier was limited to five points and five rebounds due to foul trouble.

With the other four players on the court coming into their own and Collier bouncing back with 16 points and 11 rebounds against Maryland, the Longhorns are a dangerous team.

“We can play with anybody, we can play in any situation as long as we are together and execute our game plan,” graduate transfer guard Kyra Lambert said before the tournament in a March 12 teleconference. “That’s the key.”

Despite knocking out some of the best teams in the country, Texas will still be the underdog in its upcoming matchup against No. 1 seed South Carolina on Tuesday. The Longhorns are familiar with their underdog status, and they have begun to embrace it, Schaefer said.

“It’s a mindset. It’s an approach,” Schaefer said after the win against Maryland. “I told them, ‘When you engage the mechanism, you get rid of the noise. It’s just you and your team, you and the game.’ We are focused on us. No one thinks we can do it, that’s fine. It’s not uncharted water.”  

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the March 30 issue of The Daily Texan.