Over the past couple weeks, Texas women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer has emphasized two key pieces of the game to his athletes: rebounding and turnovers.
He’s right to do so. His team’s inability to consistently take care of the ball and secure rebounds has been the thorn in the Longhorns’ side and the primary reason for losses to South Carolina and LSU. Against the Gamecocks and Tigers, Texas combined for 39 turnovers, but the Longhorns failed to come up with critical rebounds while allowing offensive rebounds.
Fresh off a break after their matchup against Arkansas was canceled due to inclement weather, the Longhorns now face another tough gauntlet of ranked Southeastern Conference opponents. If these issues persist, February could be long and grueling. Ending conference play on a winning streak is crucial for momentum and confidence.
“Offensively, (it’s) the same old thing,” Schaefer said. “We’ve got to take care of the ball, turnovers, rebounding and the toughness plays, the 50-50 balls. That’s why we’ve lost two games. We’ve turned the ball over too much, and we haven’t gotten critical rebounds. … That’s a stat I obviously track and keep an eye on, and this is a team that’s really struggled with that. So we’ve challenged our group to really focus on that.”
For Schaefer, it’s not rocket science. These problems are correctable through drills and practice. If his players compete with the level of toughness he expects, those issues tend to fix themselves.
Any Schaefer team is typically defined by defensive toughness, but that mentality has to extend to ball security, which is an area where both veterans and younger players have struggled. The margin for error in one-possession games is razor-thin, as it was against LSU and South Carolina. Against future ranked opponents, games could very well come down to one possession, where discipline will be the difference.
Texas will travel to Gainesville, Florida on Thursday to take on the Gators, marking its first road game in two weeks. The Longhorns will then return home to the Moody Center on Sunday to face rival No. 10 Oklahoma in a highly-anticipated Red River matchup.
The Sooners are fresh off a dominant overtime win against South Carolina and boast one of the top freshmen in the country in guard Aaliyah Chavez, a five-star recruit and a top-three prospect in the 2025 class. In overtime, Chavez outscored the entire Gamecock team 15-7.
Just five days later, LSU will travel to Austin for a rematch of January’s game. In their loss, the Longhorns allowed 19 offensive rebounds, committed 17 turnovers and shot 43.9% from the field.
Even after these next few challenging battles, the stretch doesn’t get any easier. Texas will host No. 18 Kentucky, then travel to Nashville to face No. 5 Vanderbilt, followed by a matchup with the No. 15-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols in Knoxville — the only remaining undefeated team in SEC play.
This week’s Associated Press women’s top-25 poll featured 10 SEC teams, making it the first conference in the poll’s 50-year history to achieve the feat. No matter the opponent, Texas will be battle-tested constantly in this league.
“We got to continue to teach kids to play with an edge, especially in this league,” Schaefer said. “If you don’t play with an edge and you just show up and think you’re going to win, you’re going to get popped. … I can’t give them the rah-rah speech every night before every game. At some point, they’ve got to be accountable for getting themselves ready to go.”
Despite the challenges ahead, Schaefer knows what his team is capable of. The Longhorns have the potential to be special, but only if they commit to toughness, unselfish play and smart decisions on the floor.
“Knowing what I see every day, … they’ve got a chance,” Schaefer said. “They really do. They can have a really special year here. But I’ve also seen the … good, the bad and the ugly. I’ve seen the ugly, and I’ve got to fix the ugly.”
