Everything Texas WBB head coach Vic Schaefer said after loss to South Carolina

Texas head women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer spoke to the media following the team’s 67-50 loss to South Carolina on Sunday. Here’s everything he had to say.

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Opening statement

“First, (I) just thought South Carolina was really good today. I thought they were much tougher (and) much, much more aggressive, but they were much more disciplined. I just didn’t have my team ready to play. At the end of the day, they weren’t ready. We had talked about trying not to get hit first, and we got hit first, and second, and third.

“I thought they were who I thought they were. I’ve been here enough; I’ve played against them enough. Their teams are always really, really tough. Their competitive spirit just oozes in the arena. And they just play with a real toughness tool. And toughness is not just physical – it’s the mental piece that, I think, really shines and stands out a lot when you’re watching a basketball team. We were very uncomfortable early, and then, we just went south in a hurry – and that’s the mental piece. I told my team, ‘It just seemed like we got uncomfortable today. We did a lot of uncharacteristic things.’

“But that’s what a team like that will do to you. It’s what we normally do to people, but we didn’t It’s hard to do it to to a team like that who’s so tough mentally and physically, and that’s a credit to Dawn (Staley) and her staff. Again, I’ve run into that team a lot over the years, and you’ve got to have your team in that same mode, and my team just wasn’t in that mode. I just wasn’t able to convey that to them. It’s nobody’s fault but my own, and they just weren’t ready.

“I think my stat guy said we were 12-for-32 at the rim. We got a lot of looks early that I like that we’ve been making, but that’s life on the road, right? So defense, rebounding, inside game – that’s how you win on the road. Kyla (Oldacre) has 11 (points) and 16 (rebounds) tonight, and I think, out of those 16, 12 of them are offensive. But, second chance points, we don’t have very many. Again, that’s the toughness piece.

“I think you’ve got lots of challenges. They’re challenging every shot – that’s part of a great defensive team. When I think of South Carolina, I always think of their defense – they’re always really good. And It’s not just what they’re doing on the ball or on the wing or in the post – they play the play out. They’re challenging even to the shot, and that’s part of defense, right – contesting shots.

“I’d ask anybody in the room: When’s the last time you covered a team that got 28 more shots… We had 14 more offensive rebounds, we forced 22 turnovers, and we got beat (by) 17. You can raise your hand if you’ve ever covered a team that had those stats. I don’t think anybody’s ever covered that – men or women. Like, what I just said is crazy. But they shot 51% for the game – 70 in the first half, I think.

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“But it really, to me, it’s, again, I obviously didn’t have them ready. I’ll take full responsibility. I’m proud of Ky for her battling in there, man. She was a dead gun. She was a clothesline with a bunch of clothes hanging on a bunch today, and there wasn’t too many safety pins involved, so she really battled. I’m proud of her, and she took charge there as she turned one down. She came back and took one. You know, that’s coaching, and that’s being coachable.

“Again, I thought South Carolina was really special today. As I told Dawn, I had no idea how they got beat at UCLA. That’s a really good basketball team over there. So, we’ll learn from it, and we’ll move on.”

On how difficult it was to get past South Carolina’s defense

“Make no mistake – I’m telling you, they’re contesting shots. They’re just around everything, whether it’s an offensive board or a jump shot or anything else. They do a great job of contesting shots.”

On whether this year’s South Carolina team is different than in years past

“I don’t know that it’s any different. I mean, her teams, to her credit, they’re always very tough. I’ve said that we’re not bunching here. And it’s not just the physical component, it’s the mental component. I thought we were really mentally weak today – I just was so disappointed. I looked out there sometimes thinking, ‘Who is that?’ And, again, obviously, I’ve not done a good job conveying to my players what we’re looking for, what we want to do, how we want to do it.

“I think, when I play against her teams, they very rarely get outside of their bodies, so to speak. They don’t get outside of their mind. They have a way they want to do things, and they do it. That’s typically how my teams play – we just weren’t that way today. I don’t know if it was a pancakes – I have no idea. But I was really frustrated with my group early on because of the mental things that we had going on throughout the course of the game.

“Again, I’ll take responsibility for that because, obviously, (I) haven’t conveyed to them the importance of doing your job. I think everybody has a job to do. That team, their leading scorers come off the bench. Their leading scorers don’t average 20 (points per game) – they average 11. Two of them averaged 14 in (the) conference. So, it isn’t about who’s the leading scorer – that’s a team over there. They play really well together.

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“And we have been doing that. My team has been really good up until today – I mean, we’ve been really, really good. It’s just today… I just don’t know what happened today. We talked about doing your job and being the thermostat, not the thermometer. Well, we wanted to be the thermostat today, but we ended up being the thermometer, you know – they set the thermostat. We talked about trying to set the thermostat today; we didn’t set the thermostat.

“And it just, again, you got to bring an edge. If you’re gonna play and live in the top-five neighborhood in the country, those top-five teams are typically there year in and year out. I’m talking about programs, so (the) top 10 programs each year. When the preseason poll comes out, your fan base doesn’t look 12 through 25. They look in the top 10 – that’s the neighborhood you live in. If you’re going to live in that neighborhood, that neighborhood is full of a bunch of people that live with an edge – they have an edge to them. South Carolina has an edge – they play with an edge. And we’ve been doing that, but today, we didn’t have that edge – and we talked about having an edge.

“But that’s what separates the top 10 programs, not teams. Teams – really, 15 through 30, are fluid. Every year in men’s and women’s basketball, those teams are in and out, up and down. But the neighborhood of the top 10 – that’s a select group. And, usually, it’s the same group every year, for the most part. And hose teams have the ‘it’ factor. They have the edge; they play with an edge, with an attitude, with the attitude of ‘the dog gets the bone.’ And we didn’t play with that edge today, and I have no idea why.

“But (it’s) my fault. My job is to have them ready, and I just didn’t have them ready. So, we’ll go home and have a couple of good days, and we got to go back on the road for two more. (We) got to see another top-10 team a week from now, a week from tomorrow, and got to play at Auburn on Thursday. So ain’t nobody will feel sorry for us, but we’ve got to fix some things. But again, we’ve been doing it – it’s just, today was not our day.”

On how Madison Booker recovers from subpar shooting performance

“We’ll go back and look at all 19 shots and talk about the ones we liked and maybe the ones that we could probably get something better. And you learn from it. I think the thing you got to (remember), you got to give her a little grace. She’s (Madison Booker) a 19-year-old sophomore in college, so you’re going to have some of these. Especially now, after the freshman year she had, she’s on the front of everybody’s scouting report. So, we’ll go back and look at that.

“I’m not going to be too terribly worried about it, but I think we’ve got to learn from it. And she will – I mean, you’re talking about one of the all-time greatest kids ever. So, I don’t worry too much about her. Again, today was not her day, but it wasn’t any of us, our day, so we’ll learn.”

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