Following Sunday afternoon’s win over the Tennessee Volunteers, Texas women’s basketball head coach Vic Schaefer took an opportunity during his team’s off-day to look back at the previous stretch of games.
“Reflection Monday is always a good day for me, and it helps me to really step back,” Schaefer said.
Since the start of February, the Longhorns have faced then-No. 10 Oklahoma, then-No. 5 LSU, then-No. 18 Kentucky, No. 5 Vanderbilt and then-No. 22 Tennessee, escaping this gauntlet of Southeastern Conference play with a 4–1 record.
But lingering within that stretch is the lopsided loss to the Commodores, in which the Longhorns’ deficit reached as much as 26 points.
After the defeat in Nashville, Schaefer did not hold back about his perception of his players’ lack of heart and toughness, calling his group “probably the softest team I’ve had in years.”
It was a polarizing level of criticism that did not go away overnight, even after a redeeming win in Knoxville. While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the topic resurfaced in the context of Schaefer’s Monday reflection.
“I don’t know that my team particularly liked it,” Schaefer said about the reception of his criticism. “I’ve had teams in the past that would have taken that and really wore it and said, ‘Hey man, we gotta get better.’ … Each team is different, and this team is different too. And even though we went to Tennessee and we won on Sunday, in hindsight, I don’t know that I would do that again with this team.”
Schaefer emphasized his public frustration came from a place of care for his players, that he wants success “so badly for them, to a fault.” Yet his way of expressing it was received differently throughout the locker room. Even after 670 games as a head coach, there is still learning to be done.
“My job (is) to be in tune with my players and my team,” Schaefer said. “Throughout the course of the season, you learn things about your team, and so you learn from it, you grow from it and you move on.”
The question now becomes, how will they move forward? At this point in time, No. 4 Texas sits at a record of 24–3, with 10 ranked wins, and is projected as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament by ESPN’s Charlie Creme.
Last week’s loss to Vanderbilt has the potential to be framed as a blip in the road to postseason success, rather than a signal that things are falling apart. The bounce back in Knoxville indicates that the former can hold true.
“I don’t think the sky is falling, even though sometimes we can all act like it and think like it, but it’s not,” Schaefer said. “These kids are doing all they can do.”
Only four games remain for the Longhorns before the SEC Tournament, and next on the docket is the rescheduled contest against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Texas will tip off from Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark., at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday in its penultimate road game of the 2025-26 campaign.
