Vic Schaefer on expectations at Texas: 'It's about winning championships'

Texas has reached the Elite Eight in three of Vic Schaefer’s first four seasons coaching the Longhorns’ women’s basketball team. However, the two-time national coach of the year believes they’re just scratching the surface.

Schaefer’s squad is coming off a 33–5 season during the 2023-24 season and will enter the SEC as an immediate threat to contend for a conference championship. Entering his fifth year, it seems Schaefer has waited long enough for the Longhorns to make it to the Final Four and beyond.

“Being good, that’s just not it at Texas,” Schaefer told Paul Finebaum in Destin at the SEC spring meetings. “That’s just — we’re not interested in just being good. It’s about winning championships. You know, we’ve won the directors cup two years in a row. We’re in it right now, trying to win it.

“There’s just a level of, you know, we always say Elite is a choice. And when you choose Texas, either as a coach or student athlete — even as a student, you’re choosing to be elite and live in that realm. And so I think again, that’s our mindset, that’s who CDC has hired. coaches that have that mindset, then go out and recruit student athletes that have that mindset. And so that’s what you get when you come to Texas and when you sign up to be there.”

The 2024-25 season will mark Schaefer’s 20th season as a head coach and 40th season in the industry. He’s done almost everything there is to do as a head or assistant coach. After last year’s postseason run, Schaefer has now been a part of one NCAA Championship, three NCAA Championship Games, four Final Fours, seven Elite Eights and 10 Sweet 16s. 

Of course, Schaefer is all too familiar with Texas’ new conference — the SEC. Before coming to coach the Longhorns, Schaefer was the head coach at Mississippi State for eight seasons between 2011 and 2020. During that time, he compiled a 221-62 (.781) record that saw the Bulldogs win the program’s first ever SEC regular-season championship and SEC Tournament championship. They also made five consecutive appearances in the SEC Tournament Championship Game.

Schaefer is well on his way to leading Texas to similar success. While a Final Four has eluded him while on the Forty Acres thus far, he’s led the Longhorn to a 109-32 record in four seasons as the head coach and will look to improve on that entering a hot Southeastern Conference.