When senior guard Ashton Judd and senior forward Teya Sidberry decided to transfer to Texas for their senior year, they knew they would not only lose academic credits but also have to compete against each other for minutes.
They didn’t care. Judd and Sidberry wanted to be on the Forty Acres, no matter the obstacles or the sacrifices. Neither got to play a full season, each dealing with injuries, but they still made an impact.
Judd and Sidberry are just two of the five seniors celebrated on Senior Day after Texas’ win against Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon.
It’s rare to have five seniors in one class, which makes the group’s bond even stronger. This senior class has a mix of personalities and backgrounds, but head coach Vic Schaefer said they all share the same competitiveness and love for the game, even if it looks different for each of them.
“I think the biggest thing is they care deeply about their team and their teammates, and they just love basketball,” Schaefer said. “That’s why they’re so hard sometimes on themselves … when they think they haven’t played to the standard they need to.”
For senior center Kyla Oldacre, who started on Sunday, even just two years with the program meant something. She helped the team reach a Final Four, yearning for a bigger role after limited minutes when she was at Miami.
Senior guard Sarah Graves and graduate guard Rori Harmon have had the longest tenures with the program. Though they’ve had different roles and different levels of playing time, both are reminders of what makes college athletics special.
In the era of Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal, it’s rare to see a player stay five years with one program. No matter how this season ends, Harmon will go down as one of the greats in Texas history. One can go on and on about the records she has broken and her eliteness as a floor general, but her impact goes beyond the stat sheet.
From playing in front of near-empty crowds at the Frank Erwin Center to 10,000-plus fans at the Moody Center, she’s helped fuel the growth of the sport. It wasn’t always easy. There were slumps. There was a devastating ACL injury, yet she came back stronger and more determined anyway.
“Rori Harmon is who she is,” Schaefer said. “There is nothing that is going to happen in this world that Rori Harmon is not going to be able to handle. It’s been fun with Rori. We’ve won a lot of games together and we’re both super competitive, and I think that’s why we’re so compatible.”
Walk-on opportunities in women’s college basketball are limited with small rosters, but after studying Schaefer’s playbook and earning his trust, she carved out her place and eventually earned a scholarship.
“She’s a great kid, a great teammate,” Schaefer said. “She’s what’s right about college athletics and you just don’t find it in today’s climate. She works just as hard as anybody else on our team, and yet it doesn’t deter her one minute, her energy, her effort, her commitment, whether she plays a minute or she doesn’t, it does not deter who she is.”
It’s clear that the senior class is the center of the entire team’s bond, as tears streamed from the underclassmen’s faces as the seniors were being introduced — junior forward Madison Booker even yelled, “Don’t leave me!” as Harmon walked out.
For the seniors and the team, the job isn’t finished. There’s still a dream to chase, but on Sunday afternoon, they got to pause and celebrate with each other.
