Everything Vic Schaefer said ahead of Texas’ Final Four matchup with South Carolina

Here’s everything Texas women’s head coach Vic Schaefer said ahead of his team’s Final Four matchup with South Carolina on 6 p.m. on ESPN in Tampa, Fla.

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Transcription provided by ASAP Sports

VIC SCHAEFER: Really proud of my team. They have shown great toughness and resilience all year long. Not much has been made of our potentially, early in the year losing two starters, and yet this team just continues to work and get better.

It’s been great having Rori (Harmon) back after her injury a year ago.

But this team’s earned it. They’ve earned their way. I have been really honored to be their coach this year. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do and then some. The good Lord’s blessed me with just an incredible group of young ladies.

For them in our first year in the SEC, to go in there and be co-champions with South Carolina, winning’s really hard y’all. And people think it’s easy until it ain’t. And this group has just continued to work hard, get better.

(Madison) Booker had an All-American year, obviously, two-time, back-to-back First-Team All-American. Special kid, special player.

All these kids, I’ll tell you, on my team, what makes them fun to be around, first of all, they’re a hoot off the floor, it’s a pretty loose group. But on the floor there’s so much humility in our locker room. Kids are grateful. Unfortunately in the real world that’s not real common but it is on our team. We have a team full of grateful and humble kids.

We’re honored to be here and honored to be representing the University of Texas. And I think this group — we have a thing right now that, job’s not done. We’re excited we got past the Elite Eight in Birmingham. But these kids are here to compete and so am I.

I couldn’t be more proud to be with this group. I’ve told them all year long, y’all, they’re good enough. I knew what I was looking back in August on the track. I’ve seen it every day — I think we’ve had 106 or 108 practices — and they’re good enough. I’m happy they’re here.

They’ve had a good time. They’ve separated the good time from work. When we’ve stepped on the court the last two days, they’ve done a great job. Hopefully we’ll play, we’re going to play really well tomorrow night. Again, couldn’t be more proud of a group of young ladies. They’re special.

Q. You’ve been coaching for a while. I’m curious, the fact that Geno (Auriemma) and UConn has made 16 of the last 17 Final Fours, what does that say about their standard of excellence? And do you consider them one of the greater sports dynasties?

VIC SCHAEFER: I think I mentioned this the other day, I mean, when you’re a coach and you’re really invested in what you do and how you do it — there’s lots of coaches, y’all, that coach, and I look at them and I think it’s just a check to them, administrators too for that matter.

But when you have somebody like Coach Auriemma — and I’ll even go to Dawn (Staley) — you have to respect the level of consistency and excellence that they’ve done it at. Certainly Coach Auriemma has done it a little bit longer, had that consistency a little bit longer. But just in the last several years, you have to say that about Coach Staley as well.

So for me, I have a great deal of admiration and respect for both of them and certainly for Coach Auriemma in how he built that program in Connecticut literally with his bare hands from the ground up. And to sustain the level of excellence that he has is really quite remarkable.

Again, I think when you look at both those programs and see where they are, for me, again, I have been doing this a while, I have a great deal of are and admiration for both of them because they have done it at an incredible level and they’re very consistent year in, year out.

In any profession, y’all, no matter what you’re doing, that’s what you strive for.

If you’re worth your salt, you’re trying to be the best. Like, that’s where I’m at. I’m chasing the last game. I want it bad for these kids. And it’s hard, winning’s really hard. And obviously Coach Auriemma has won a lot.

Q. Following up on that, if you looked at this whole field from above, from a helicopter, might this be the most impactful from the four teams and the fact that whoever wins it Sunday night will have had to go through three gauntlets to win this thing? And the fact that these teams, as much as people cry no Cinderellas, but this has been a standard of excellence; they’ve all been in the top 10 basically all year long and flipped it to five a couple times?

VIC SCHAEFER: I think they said three of the four teams have been ranked No. 1 this season. It’s an incredible group. When you think about every team, no team has very many losses. I think everybody’s a conference champion.

It’s really, again, whoever gets through this semifinal and final will have done it against the best of the best. So I think for all of us, we all understand it. It’s hard to do.

And so you really get this far and it doesn’t matter, I tell my kids all the time. When they leave to go to bed at night out of the film room or team room, they’re, like, Coach, you need to go to bed. I’m, like, look, I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Right now this is the most important thing in my life. And for them, I want them to have every opportunity to be successful. It is a gauntlet, for sure. So we’ll kind of see how it all shakes out this weekend.

Q. The last time Texas was in the Final Four, Coach (Jody) Conradt, 2003 — a lot of your players weren’t even born then. But you’ve been there twice. How important is it for you to have that experience to be able to relay that to your players?

VIC SCHAEFER: Actually, been there three times. I was an assistant at A&M when we won the national championship. And I told them the other night after we won in Birmingham, we got on the airplane, and before we took off I knew they were going to go to sleep and we weren’t going to land until 2:15, I said — we’re going to land, you’re going to go home, wash clothes and we’re getting right back on the airplane — I said, from that moment on you will not have a minute to yourself.

I said, I realize you want to see your families. They’re going to be with you. But I’m going to need you all to really try to — if you get an hour, if you get two hours, you need to have that time to yourself. You need to take a nap. You need to refresh mentally as well as physically.

Jim Dedmon | Imagn Images

You can visit with family when you’re done with spring semester.

Not wanting to take away from any of that because I know all my kids, their families are here and certainly I want this them to enjoy that, but you just get pulled from so many areas, so many different directions.

I just want them to — we had a tough regional. We had to play another team from the SEC, in Tennessee, who was playing very well and is a really good team. Had a knock-down, drag-out with them.

Then we had to go up against TCU, a conference champion. As Rori said, offensively, their efficiency is off the chart. Got a seventh-year player on their team, a fifth-year player on their team. That’s their two best players. We knew we had a challenge there. Obviously, if you watched that game Monday night, you saw how hard my kids played.

It’s something that was on my mind from as soon as it was over. And I had to tell my staff, too, we have to really try to lock in and really close the doors and lock out the distractions, if you will. And it’s hard to do.

Again, for my kids, I want them to enjoy this. You guys don’t know this, every time they walk in a room somewhere, there’s something there waiting for them. It’s a box. It’s a pair of shoes. It’s warm-ups. It’s a bag. They can’t wait to leave here go back to the hotel because they think there’s going to be something there for them.

We got them back last night from dinner. We walk into our room, boom, there’s something. This is special. They need to enjoy this. It’s hard to get here, and yet it is a business trip. They’re good enough. I want them to know that.

And you don’t want to steal that from them. You don’t want to take that from them. You don’t want to minimize the joy of stopping by and seeing our friends at Nike last night and spending time with them, getting to personally meet A’Ja Wilson. How special is that for those kids? And she takes time to visit with them.

I mean, like I said, every room they walk in, it’s Christmas. And for me, there’s so much joy seeing their face, seeing them happy because I know how hard they work. Like, our kids, they work hard. They embrace toughness. They know we talk about it all the time, and I’m always talking about it.

It’s one thing to talk it. It’s another thing to walk it. And they don’t like to be told they’ve been punked. They take great pride in not getting punked. When I tell them they’ve gotten punked, they do not like it. So they work hard. So you want them to enjoy it.

Q. Like you said, you’ve been here before. But what does it mean to get here with this program with such a storied women’s basketball history? Your hometown. And I know you shared a moment with Jody Conradt after the Elite Eight win. Would love to know a little bit about that moment and what that meant to you.

VIC SCHAEFER: It’s special. I mean, five years ago, when they hired me, it was really important to me that Chris Plonski and Kathy Harston and Jody Conradt were in on that. I wanted their blessing because I know what they meant to Texas women’s basketball.

But I also know what they meant to the game. Those are lifers. Those are people that have invested their entire life and careers into women’s basketball. Like, there’s some young folks up here, they don’t understand — I do. Like, I get it. I’ve seen it firsthand.

This is my life, and I’ve seen it up close and in person. To know the domination that Coach Conradt in the Southwest Conference days — I’m embarrassed I can’t recall the number, but it’s 100-some-odd crazy number, 80-something games of consecutive conference victories.

So I know the history and tradition at Texas. And like I said, that banner hangs in there. That 34-0 championship banner hangs in my practice facility.

The 2003, the last time they’d been in an NCAA Tournament, it hangs in my practice facility.

So it’s a tremendous responsibility for me to be entrusted with the keys to the program. But it’s also why I wanted the job because my vision is their vision. My vision was to come into the office — and, remember, I took it during COVID — so it was jacked up, bad.

But my vision was to come in after a game the next morning, have coffee and have Coach Conradt come down from her office and talk about the game with me. Like, I embrace those moments.

And Coach is around a lot. And I love that, love having her around. It means a lot to me that she takes enough time out of her day, where she is right now, she’s a hell of a golfer — that she would take the time to come by practice, hang out, be around. I love that. That’s the vision when I took the job. I wanted to be around her and I wanted her to be around our program.

She was there when we beat Baylor back in my second year. We beat them to win the Big 12 championship tournament game. Again, one of the reasons they probably hired me was to catch up to them and beat them and win a championship. And we did that pretty quick.

And then to now be where we are now in the NCAA Final Four, I’m honored to be their coach. But I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in a short period of time. It’s been 22 years since they’ve been in the Final Four. It had been 22 years since they won a conference championship. And we’ve won four in five years.

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for those three because to me they are Texas women’s basketball, and I love being around them. They’re just wonderful, wonderful people.

Q. Is there anything you’re doing differently — maybe the answer is no — in terms of routine or just with your players, in terms of film study, practice, from your times at Mississippi State right now during this week? Are you guys preparing any differently for a national semi and potentially the weekend?

VIC SCHAEFER: Probably. A lot has happened since ’17. I know I did things different between the semifinal win and the championship game, ’17 to ’18.

So I would say, again, I don’t claim to know it all, I don’t think I’m ever done learning; I think when you’re done learning you need to hang it up. I always try to keep an open mind and continue to grow as a coach and learn.

AP Photo/Melissa Tamez

I think I’m more in tune with my student-athletes, how they’re feeling physically. If you’re in a practice, if you were at mine today, I asked probably four or five of my kids, how are you feeling today? How are you legs? I’m a little more in tune.

I think back in ’17 I was more of a suck it up, we’re all right, let’s go, this is where we go, that kind of thing. I think I’ve changed a little bit.

My former players would say I’m way softer. That’s not the case. But in their eyes, you know, eight years ago, 10 years as, it was this way, and I’ve always had former players on my staff.

So now it’s, like, oh, you’re way softer. I don’t think I am, but I do think I’m more in tune with my student-athletes. And I try to listen to them and how they’re doing.

Q. You mentioned what Coach Auriemma has done in building it from the ground up. You saw it firsthand when you were on Coach Blair’s staff, building it at A&M from the ground up. What do you think in this day and age, transfer portal and NIL everything that’s wrapped into it, is more difficult to do — to build a program from scratch or do what you are having to do, inherit a program that won 183 Southwest Conference games and has all the tradition and success?

VIC SCHAEFER: I would say the 183 was back, we’ll just say, in the day; it was in the ’80s, right? I’m not sure I just inherited a roster full of players. I mean, we played six and a half kids that first year. And I think we were 7-7 in the league or 8-8. And we ended up — we were a 6 seed. We won our first-round game. Then have to play a top-10 UCLA team in the second round. We beat them.

Then we have to play Maryland in the Sweet 16. They were averaging about 100 points a game, and Antonelli was telling the world, Vic’s not going to sleep for a week because they’re going to hang 100 on them. And they scored their 60th and 61st point with two-tenths of a second on the clock, and we beat them 64-61 to go to the Elite Eight.

But we weren’t left — Shay is the only one left of that recruiting class that we inherited. She’s the only one that made it past the first year. And so I don’t think we were just left with a whole cupboard full of teams.

So I feel like we’ve kind of built it from the ground up at Texas, too.

So I think it is difficult. It’s hard. We certainly did that at Mississippi State in inheriting a 14-16 team with six seniors on the way out the door.

But I think what that allows you to do is it allows you to establish a fundamental group that if you get kids that fit — we always talk about recruiting to a fit — and then you can retain them and you can develop them.

That’s always been the secret to my success as a coach — recruit to fit, retain and develop them. The retaining piece is getting harder and harder. There’s no question about it. But if we can get them to do that, we can get them to stay and they’ll let us coach them, I think the proof’s in the pudding.

It’s something we’ve taken great pride in. Again, I think you have to give my staff a ton of credit. I have the best staff. I’ve had some great staffs. I’ve been really blessed with some incredible staffs throughout my head coaching tenure. This one is incredible.

If I had to rank them one, two, three, four, this would be one. They are really, really special. Elena has been with me a long time. We’ve seen a lot together. Of course Lindsay and Blair and Sydney — Blair and Sydney both played for me on Final Four teams. Sydney won one with me.

It’s really hard to do, though, but I think if you get the opportunity to build it with your bare hands from the ground up, I think you can establish what you want done and how you want it done, so that every class after that, when they come in, those kids show them how it’s done.

Remember, that team that beat Connecticut in ’17, there was not one top 100 player in that senior class. Not one. We couldn’t get them. Nobody was going to come that was in the top 100 at that time. But that senior class established what we wanted done.

Q. You mentioned after that Elite Eight game that your family has taken somewhat of a hit in the times that you’ve been coaching, but you have had Blair along the way with you as a player, obviously as your daughter, first off. But then as a player and coming to your staff. How have you seen her grow in those roles with you? And also how has that relationship been with her being on the staff with you?

VIC SCHAEFER: Let’s go back to when she was a player. She earned her way. Tough. Took 90 charges in her career. That means she probably got trucked about 200 times. But she earned her way. Made herself into an all-defensive player team in the Southeastern Conference. That’s really quite remarkable.

But her hard work, commitment, dedication — and again playing for me, fair or unfair, I probably coached her harder than anybody. But I think she had the respect of the locker room and never whimpered. Never said why. Never complained. Not one minute in her career.

She’d come home — she has a twin brother — and he’s our miracle. We almost lost him when he was 14, but he’s a miracle. He’s great now. You walk in the door you never know anything happened to him.

But we’d have dinner on Monday nights, our off nights during the conference, and we grew up everybody at the dinner table. We would spread out and watching TV. We would sit and talk about the day.

We’d talk about the old coach. I was, like, how was practice today. She said, he was a little grumpy. He didn’t think we played very good on Sunday. Or, he was okay. He was pretty happy today. We had a big win.

But we talked in those terms. It was always third sense, third term. That’s how we got through it. We had a lot of fun doing it that way.

I wanted her, when she graduated, I tried to get her to come on my staff then. I had a bunch of young guards coming in. I needed her because she’d been through the hard times and she could help them navigate that. But she was hell bent on going into y’all’s job. She wanted to be in TV, wanted to be in broadcasting. So Greg Sankey hired her at the SEC Network and she did basketball games.

So you can’t make ’em do it, so I turned her loose and let her do that. She worked for the CBS affiliate there in Columbus, Mississippi, right down the road.

Finally about February she called one day and she was crying. I thought, good, Lord, now what’s happened. She said, I think I’ve figured it out. I said, what do you mean? She said, I think I want to go into coaching.

And I thought, okay, what happened? She said, I go to — I prep for all these games. I watch film, so I know who I’m talking about. I go to shoot-arounds. Nobody has a shoot-around like we do. I go do the games and I can’t help these kids. I really feel like if I’m going to watch all this film, I need to be able to help them.

And so I said, okay, look, it’s February, you get through the season. Get through your NCAA games and we’ll talk in April.

So she did. She got back to me in April. She said, yeah, I think I really want to do it. She’s worked her way up from assistant, player development, player development. We came to Texas, she was going to be a player development coach. But at the last second my DOB didn’t come.

She got thrown into that role just to help me until I could find somebody. Well, she did it so doggone good I just said, look, you’re just going to do it. So she stayed in that role and then I moved her into a full-time coaching role.

And she’s been off the charts. Just got named a WBCA 30 Under 30 Assistant Coach, which I’m very proud of, both as a head coach, having somebody on my staff get that, as well as not the coach, the father.

I feel like with all these kids, I’ve been entrusted with them and I try to coach them and teach them, hold them accountable just like I have my own two. And Blair is really, she’s exceeded in some ways exceeded expectations this fast.

I’ve had phone calls from a couple different universities wanting to know if there would be any interest in her being a head coach. And she’s going to be a great head coach one day.

I think right now she’s locked into what doing what we’re doing together. And I like that, too. So it’s been really cool.

I’m sure she’s wanting us to hurry up and go. So I appreciate you.

The last thing I want to tell you is I do want everybody to know, we have a bus coming of students from Austin. Rori and Book and myself, we’ve helped put a bus together and got these kids. So our students are coming from Austin. I think it’s the 17-hour bus ride.

But we’ve got Booker and Rori have really ramrodded this deal. Bought the tickets. Got them some hotel rooms. So we’re excited that we’re going to be able to have some University of Texas students be able to come to the Final Four and enjoy cheering on their team.

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