Dave Wilson
Multiple Authors
AUSTIN, Texas — On Sunday evening, shortly after Texas‘ 42-point demolition of Oregon in the second spherical of the ladies’s NCAA event, Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer grabbed a microphone to deal with the almost 9,000 followers in attendance.
It was Texas’ forty fourth consecutive residence victory, setting a college file. But this wasn’t about that. This was a farewell. Schaefer wished to salute Rori Harmon, who had performed her final recreation in entrance of the residence followers.
“For five years I’ve come to the office and every day I’ve seen Rori Harmon,” Schaefer mentioned. “There’s not enough time out here today to talk about it. You just gotta know how special it’s been.”
The residence crowd, on its ft, rained down cheers on the 5-foot-6 level guard with the huge smile. They chanted her identify as she thanked them for exhibiting up, remembering her freshman yr, when video games had been performed throughout the avenue at the previous Frank Erwin Center and about 2,000 followers would present up.
But this second virtually did not occur. Harmon, a five-star recruit amongst the nation’s prime 10 prospects at Cypress Creek in the Houston space, wished to remain in Texas, an enormous drawback for Schaefer, who again then was teaching at Mississippi State. One day she informed her mom, Shemeya, that she thought it was time to name Kim Mulkey and decide to Baylor. Shemeya, citing a mom’s intuition, requested her to think about ready.
Weeks later, on April 5, 2020, Schaefer was employed at Texas and Harmon discovered the mixture of Schaefer and Texas was one she could not resist. She dedicated 19 days later, securing a head-to-head recruiting win for Schaefer over Mulkey, and exhibiting he was aiming to revive the state’s stability of energy. He informed Harmon that she may construct a legacy at Texas. Harmon responded by telling him they might construct one collectively — round her.
“I said, let me be the one at the bottom that can help the foundation,” Harmon mentioned.
And now she’s leaving as a Longhorns legend and the cornerstone of a program rebuild, all whereas spending 5 years in a single of the hardest jobs in school sports activities as Schaefer’s level guard. In his high-intensity system, there is not any place extra necessary or demanding.
“Everything is your fault,” assistant coach Sydney Carter mentioned of the level guard place. “Everything. She’s wearing everyone’s mistakes as her own.”
Schaefer’s expectations are easy, he mentioned: You are anticipated to run the offense, and if one thing goes fallacious, it is not on any of the different gamers. It’s on you. And you may’t run the offense till he first trusts you to anchor the protection, all 94 ft of it. If you are comfortable, the protection is comfortable, he mentioned. So you may’t be comfortable. And Harmon, he mentioned, is not comfortable.
“She picks your ass up at the city limits and she shows your butt the door when we’re done playing,” Schaefer mentioned.
Harmon has exceeded expectations. She broke two 40-year-old marks to turn out to be Texas’ all-time chief in steals and assists after beginning 152 video games — two shy of the college file — and taking part in 600 extra profession minutes than anybody who has ever worn the burnt orange.
That legacy Schaefer promised is safe. She is the best level guard in Longhorns historical past and the solely participant in NCAA historical past to amass no less than 1,500 factors, 900 assists, 600 rebounds and 350 steals. And her want to be a cornerstone additionally was rewarded — Harmon’s presence was no small half of the program’s potential to draw superstars corresponding to Madison Booker, who scored 40 factors in opposition to Oregon.
“I wanted to play with a good point guard, and that was Rori Harmon,” Booker mentioned after the recreation.
Now, there’s nothing else for the two of them to do however to chase Texas’ first nationwide championship in 40 years.
WHEN HARMON ARRIVED in Austin in 2021, she was so small and so younger, her teammates nicknamed her “Fetus.” Schaefer had recruited her exhausting as a result of he knew she can be ready to deal with his expectations. So from day one, he turned his program over to her.
She was a freshman in school, studying her manner round campus and courses, however in apply, there have been no coaching wheels. Schaefer made it clear: This was her group.
“I was an 18-year-old and all my teammates are like 22, 23, and you want me to be responsible for them?” Harmon mentioned. “I just got here. I don’t even know what I’m doing and you want me to check other people and what they’re doing? That was just accepting that and understanding the role that he wanted the point guards in.”
Schaefer anticipated her to be the bodily embodiment of his expectations on the courtroom — his eyes, his hearth, his self-discipline. Carter, who performed the level at instances on Texas A&M’s 2011 nationwide championship group when Schaefer was an assistant coach for Gary Blair, says there is no different job in the program prefer it.
If the heart is not in place, it is Harmon’s fault. If Booker is not the place she is purported to be, it is Harmon’s fault.
“He ain’t going to yell at a Jordan Lee or a Booker as a result of they weren’t of their spot to begin the offense,” Carter mentioned. “He’s going to say, ‘Rori, why did you start an offense and they weren’t there?’ So Rori’s got a defender who’s up in her shorts, but she’s got to be telling people where to go and then got to start the play. Then at the end of the clock people are like, ‘All right, Rori, here, take it.'”
So when Harmon started her journey, Schaefer knew he was pushing his freshman exhausting. But he supplied no quarter.
“I told her, ‘Hey, if you don’t want that responsibility, go play the two, but you ain’t a two-guard,” Schaefer mentioned. “Late in the year, it got to be kind of funny. She’d look at me and go, ‘I know, it’s my fault.’ That was part of the evolution in our relationship, her understanding that you’re in charge, but you got to do it my way, not your way.”
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Rori Harmon describes feeling of Texas incomes prime seed in NCAA tourney
Harmon particulars her pleasure for the Longhorns’ placement and discusses her dedication to go far in the NCAA Tournament in her last yr.
Harmon was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, the most excellent participant of the Big 12 event, and have become the first Texas freshman to earn All-America honors as an honorable point out. Her sophomore season, she set a program file by averaging 7.4 assists, was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and joined Caitlin Clark as the solely gamers nationally to common no less than 11 factors, seven assists and 5 rebounds.
By 2023, she was the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year and a nationwide star. On Dec. 3, Harmon had 27 factors, 13 assists and eight rebounds in Texas’ 80-68 dismantling of No. 11 UConn, the Longhorns’ first win over the Huskies. Schaefer enlisted her to lock up Paige Bueckers, who went 4-of-11 from the subject and completed with 13 factors. Less than a month later, Harmon’s season was completed, struggling a torn ACL in her proper knee throughout a shootaround earlier than a recreation in opposition to Jackson State.
In her absence, she turned a mentor — and buffer — for Booker, who took over level guard duties, seeing much more by way of Schaefer’s eyes.
“I was able to see how he was treating Madison in that role,” Harmon mentioned. “I understood, I got it. It’s not necessarily that everything is your fault. It’s about you taking responsibility and gaining control of your team. When I was injured, I could really sit back and see it from a different perspective.”
Harmon returned wiser but in addition to a greater group. Carter mentioned although her restoration was exhausting, Harmon’s basketball IQ took an enormous leap, along with her peppering the teaching workers with questions day-after-day. Her magnetic persona additionally continued to have an effect on recruits.
“She stacked them up,” Carter mentioned. “She’s Thanos. She’s got the Infinity Stones.”
Booker, the celebrity who has turn out to be a two-time All-American and this yr’s SEC event MVP, credit Harmon with not solely desirous to turn out to be a Longhorn however for pushing her to work as exhausting to match Harmon’s depth.
“I didn’t realize what hard work was until I’d seen Rori Harmon in the gym every day before practice, after practice, getting shots up,” Booker mentioned. ” People want to play defense because they see her play defense. That’s a movement right there. … We want to play like Rori.”
And they do play like her — relentless on protection, unselfish on offense. Harmon additionally has led the cost there, making an attempt a mean of 4 fewer pictures per recreation this season than she did in 2023-24 when she was averaging 14.1 factors at the time of her damage. She has turn out to be Booker’s greatest cheerleader, saying in her postgame information convention Sunday that she wasn’t shocked in any respect and “expects” that 40-point explosion each recreation from right here.
She sounded virtually Schaeferesque.
HARMON SAID THAT her crash course in basketball from a coach as achieved as Schaefer has ready her for something that comes subsequent. She needs to play in the WNBA and can get that chance, although she shall be undersized at the professional degree.
She may’ve left for the draft final yr, however the Longhorns misplaced to South Carolina 74-57 in the Final Four and he or she thought there was extra left they might obtain. For a lot of final season, she felt as if she wasn’t herself and was working again into kind from her damage, taking pictures simply 37% from the subject. She used her medical redshirt and informed Schaefer she was returning for a fifth and last season to complete the job.
“We started this together, we’re in this together,” she mentioned. “You don’t just leave somebody behind because it just gets hard one day.”
So Harmon is absorbing each second of her last days as a university participant. She speaks about honoring the program, about rewarding the followers, about having an enduring affect.
“I want to be the epitome of Texas basketball,” Harmon mentioned. “Like when people think about Texas women’s basketball, like what do you think about? Do you think about defense? Do you think about someone who plays with passion, with heart and discipline and focus?”
Harmon is pursuing a grasp’s diploma in sport administration. She mentioned her schooling in a group’s dynamics and the roles of all of its parts have her considering past teaching. She needs to be a normal supervisor.
Her solely assure proper now is an opportunity to maintain taking part in in the NCAA event. First, there’s No. 1-seeded Texas’ Sweet 16 matchup in opposition to No. 5 Kentucky in Fort Worth, Texas, on Saturday (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
Schaefer and Harmon can have, at most, 4 extra video games collectively. In these moments, she says she hopes individuals will see her as a fighter. She needs to be know as the one who by no means backed down from a problem, whether or not it was main the program as a freshman, overcoming a devastating damage or measuring as much as her coach’s large expectations day-after-day.
“To be challenged and pushed so hard for five years, it’s not like he let up, like ‘Oh, let me give you a little break,'” Harmon mentioned. “It was really challenging, but whatever is thrown at me, whether it’s life or basketball, I will be able to handle it.”
This is Harmon’s group, and behind the scenes, she says her conversations with Schaefer are completely different than they as soon as had been, when she simply claimed all the group’s faults for herself. She mentioned she understands his strategies as a result of she now holds her teammates accountable.
In February, Schaefer made headlines by ripping his group, calling it “probably the softest team I’ve had in years” and mentioned it had no coronary heart after an 86-70 loss to Vanderbilt. When that matter is broached, Harmon smiles, and hints that her examine of Vic-isms has led her to an understanding of his motivational methods.
“It’s almost like I see through him now,” she mentioned. “I know exactly what he’s doing, how he’s doing it. I’ve just seen it so many times. The things that he’s saying in the press conference are to get us to fight back in a way.”
Since that second, the Longhorns have received 10 straight video games — with 5 of these in opposition to ranked opponents — by a mean of 26 factors, together with a 78-61 win over No. 3 South Carolina to win the SEC event.
It’s these moments that additionally lead Harmon to understand the hotter moments, like when he ripped the Nancy Lieberman Award voting for the nation’s greatest level guard, saying he has by no means had a participant like Harmon and it is a travesty she has by no means received it.
Or like Sunday evening, when Schaefer put Harmon again in the recreation late with an enormous lead so she may really feel the love from the crowd, then pulled her out to wrap her in a bear hug on the sideline. Then the coach thanked the crowd for giving Harmon an evening she’ll always remember. Afterward, in the postgame interview room, Schaefer made Harmon transfer her identify tag to be at the head of the desk, demoting him to second. When the gamers’ time was up, Harmon spent her last seconds thanking reporters for making an attempt to get to know her as an individual along with a participant, whereas Schaefer seemed on proudly.
“She’s as much like me as anybody I’ve ever coached,” Schaefer mentioned final week. “We both live and die with every possession and we’re both passionate. That’s not to say it’s always been peaches and cream. We’ve butted heads, but that’s OK. She’s made me a better husband, a better father. She’s made me a better coach.”
The manner the group is taking part in proper now, Schaefer mentioned, offers it an opportunity to win a title. The Longhorns are pushed to have another celebration for Harmon in Phoenix, this time with confetti falling and Harmon hoisting a trophy.
“She’s the best point guard to ever play here and one of the best players to ever play here,” Carter mentioned. “Rori has changed this program. Her jersey should definitely be in the rafters.”
