Everything Texas head WBB coach Vic Schaefer said after loss to South Carolina in SEC Tournament Championship

Texas head women’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer spoke to the media following the team’s 64-45 loss to South Carolina in the SEC Tournament championship game on Sunday. Here’s everything he had to say.

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Opening statement

“Congratulations to South Carolina. (I’m) proud of my kids, proud of my team, thought they fought. We had a bad second quarter. I think it’s fair to say the game was lost in the second quarter for us. We didn’t shoot it well – we were 3-12 – (and) probably had a few too many turnovers that quarter.

“We gave them a 21-point quarter without scoring. I told my team it’s like college baseball – if all you can score is two runs every night, you’re not going to win in college baseball. (It) doesn’t matter how good your pitching is – we can’t score six points in a quarter.

“I thought, from that moment on, (it was) much like what happened at their place the first game. We were down 19 at half, played them dead even, I think, the second half. After that point, we competed.

“The ball was sticking on offense. I couldn’t get them to flip the floor. (It) seemed like it was just sticking in our hands. (We) didn’t have any continuity offensively. Again, they had 22 paint points at halftime of their 33. Everything they were getting offensively was off the bounce. They were really attacking the paint. I think we had eight points in the paint at halftime.

“I thought we did a much better job the second half of attacking. We got to the free-throw line 14 times. I don’t think we got there the first half. I may be wrong – no, I’m right. We got out-rebounded, too. We had too many turnovers – 18 turnovers is too many.

“But, again, I thought there were times where we played really hard. There’s no fighting these kids. Again, when you’re playing South Carolina on their home floor in front of their fans, it’s a road game. You’ve got to be able to respond when they make a run. We just weren’t able to respond in that second quarter.

“If I’m not mistaken, I think (I) took two timeouts in that quarter, right? So, I could feel I was in the avalanche, but I could never stop it. (I was) just trying to get our kids to understand what we were trying to do offensively, where we were trying to get them.

“I thought, the second half, we were much more aggressive, got to our spots. Rori (Harmon) got to her spots quite a bit. (She) was able to help us. Taylor (Jones) went 4-8, eight rebounds, 14 points, did a really good job. ‘Book’ (Madison Booker) had 10 (points) and 10 (rebounds) – a double-double – three steals, played her heart out.

“Again, I’m proud of my group. One quarter, one game certainly doesn’t define our season, who we are or what we put together. I don’t think anybody’s going to evaluate us on one quarter. This team is 31-3. They have earned their way. They have been through the gauntlet and survived it and come out on the positive side of it.

“I told them, ‘I think this game and the Elite Eight game are probably the two hardest games to win in college basketball.’ It’s not the Final Four, it’s not your semifinal or the championship game to me – it’s that Elite Eight game.

“This game – playing South Carolina here in South Carolina, in Greenville – it’s a tough game to win because they’re already good. So, it’s a very difficult game to be in. I’ve been in it six times; five of them have been against them. It’s a challenge.

“I thought my team today fought, competed. We just had a bad quarter. So, again, what this team’s accomplished this season, I don’t think anybody can question. I don’t think you can evaluate us on one bad quarter. I think you evaluate the total body of work, how many top-10s we’ve beaten throughout the course of the season – all that stuff.

“I’m disappointed, but I am not disappointed in my team. (If) you want to blame somebody, you can blame me, but I am not disappointed in these young ladies. They did all they could do today. We had a bad quarter. Other than that, they competed their tail off. I’m awfully, awfully proud of them.”

On the atmosphere in Bon Secours Wellness Arena

“It’s a road game. It is what it is. It’s the Southeastern Conference – it’s where they’ve chosen to
have our tournament. Again, I’ve been in this game a lot. You’re already playing a top-four team in the country. Then, to play them basically on their home floor, it makes it that much more difficult.

“Let’s say we were playing in San Antonio – how do you think it would be? (It would) probably (be) a little different, right? (The) atmosphere, people would go hollering for us.

“But it is what it is. You have to be ready for that, and you have to handle it. Other than the second quarter, I thought we handled it fine. Again, we’ve been on the road a lot this year, more than most of my teams I’ve ever had. The atmosphere was obviously pro-South Carolina. Because of our second quarter, we kind of gave them a little bit to cheer about. But once we got in at halftime and made some adjustments, I thought we were much better in the second half.”

On Texas’ offense when Madison Booker struggles or it can’t get in paint

“I think you just mentioned two things that we’ve been pretty good about handling and doing. In that second quarter, we just really struggled with it.

“Again, you have to flip the floor. You have to have ball movement, then attack the paint. That first half, we’d run one side of the floor. When we couldn’t get what we wanted, the ball was literally dead in our hands. Think about how many shot clock violations or close to it that we had – several.

“Now, the added piece to that is I thought I had a couple players that weren’t focused. When you’re playing a game, we have a shot clock every day in practice, and we have it every game, right? When you’re not into what you’re doing, and you don’t know the shot clock, that’s a sign that, to me, you’re not into what we’re doing. You’re not focused. I thought we had that happen a couple different times.

“I just thought the ball stuck in the first half. We just didn’t have very good ball movement – especially that second quarter.

“I’m not concerned about this team. They’ve been great. We’ve scored a lot of points certain nights. I think I’ve told you all – this is one of the better shooting teams I’ve ever coached. I’m not worried about them. We’ve had some kids that didn’t shoot it well the last two nights. They’ll come back, bounce back, shoot it better the next night – I have no question in my mind.”

On whether Schaefer wants the SEC to change location of conference tournament

“When you’re talking about the student-athlete experience, we used to play it once every three, four, five years in Nashville. I don’t think, now, it even gets there anymore. I’ve only been back in the league one year.

“Obviously, Greenville loves having us and does a great job. I think you have to look beyond that when you start seeing it. Obviously, they’re a really good team. It’s not enough dealing with them when you play them at home or you play them on a neutral floor. When you have to play them here, two hours from campus, it’s a distinct advantage. If we’re worried about or talking about a student-athlete experience, again, we all love being here. It’s a great experience, but they’re having a better experience right now than I am. (I’m) not saying that’s the reason we got beat at all.

“I’ve been in the league where it’s been all over. I think we were in Tampa one year. We’ve been in Nashville; we’ve been somewhere else. I’ve seen it all. We were in Little Rock when I was at Arkansas – no, at Mississippi State. We’ve tried it everywhere. I think the reason we keep coming back here is Greenville just does a tremendous job. This arena does a tremendous job. Until you can find another place that does the job that Greenville does, I think that’s why we keep coming back here.

“Again, South Carolina is good on their own without putting them in an arena that’s two hours from home, but you’re still in their state with a pro crowd. We’ve got to find a way to be in that moment and compete. It’s one quarter tonight, in my mind.”

On how much Texas’ shooting was affected by crowd

“I think you have to give South Carolina a lot of credit for their defense. I think they’re really good defensively. They’re quick, they’re athletic, they’re long. They have a good plan on how to guard you.

“I think you have to give Coach (Dawn Staley) and her staff and her players credit because that’s who’s out there playing. (It) doesn’t matter where you’re playing – that’s who’s out there playing. I think you have to give them a ton of credit for how hard they play. We take great pride in how hard we play defensively. When I watched them, they play really hard defensively. I’ve experienced that playing them.

“I’m not shy at all about giving them credit for how hard they play, especially on the defensive end. They make it very, very difficult on you – they make it difficult on the catch; they make it difficult on the shot. They make it difficult on the post-up; they play through all defensive possessions. I think we had 12 offensive rebounds, but three were a dead ball. So, only nine live ball. That limits our second-chance points to seven.”

On the decision to play Taylor Jones and Kyla Oldacre at the same time

“Yeah, it wasn’t long. It’s not the first time, but it’s the second time. I think, neither time, (it) didn’t last very long. (I) was just trying to get the ball inside and, maybe, get on the offensive boards a little bit. We didn’t leave it in there too long. We were struggling with some other kids and felt like we needed to take a look at a different group of lineup. That’s what we did, so that’s all there is to it.”

On whether championship loss will affect Texas’ status as No. 1 overall seed in NCAA Tournament

“I just think you’re talking about one quarter. We beat them at home. They beat us at their place. We lost another, in my mind, on the road again. How many do we have in top-10 wins, 10? I don’t think that’s right. – we had nine going into LSU.

“Nonetheless, I think our body of work and our NET, it speaks for itself. I think, with what we’ve been able to do… Again, I’m not in there. At this point, for me, it’s just, tell me what time the bus needs to load, where from, and I’ll make sure my team’s on it.

“I certainly think we have established ourselves as one of the top two teams in the cup when it comes to seeding. I know Dawn will think they should be over us because they’ve beaten us twice. Again, if we played this week in San Antonio, next week in San Antonio, wherever, who knows how that would turn out. We know how it turned out today. It’s one quarter – one quarter hurt us today.

“We’ll learn from that. I think, again, we’ve earned our way, and we’ll trust the committee to make that decision. Whatever they make, we’ll roll with it.”

On what it meant to have former Texas head coach Jody Conradt travel with team

“Well, I have so much respect and admiration for her. Between her and Chris Plonsky and Kathy Harston, when I walk out of that tunnel to come out to the floor to play in this game and I see those three… For those of you that don’t know, what those three have done for women’s college basketball, you can’t put a value to it. It is off the chart. They have given their life to women’s college basketball.

“You all want to talk about everybody, what they’re doing now today, the coaches today, all that. Let me know when the coaches today have been in it 40 years, when their life has been nothing but giving to this game, making sure this game grows.

“When I walk out of the tunnel, I see ‘CP’ and Coach (Conradt) sitting there, there is a feeling that comes over me of pride, gratefulness, honor to be entrusted with the program at the University of Texas. Trust me, I would not have taken this job had I not known that they were good with it because it means that much to them, and it means that much to me. They mean that much to me.

“I’ve been around, done it a long time. I know exactly how much blood, sweat and tears those three have poured into this game – not just at Texas, but the game itself. In my mind, I owe it, my players owe it, we in women’s college basketball owe it to people like them who have been lifers. There’s others, but you asked me about those three, and I’ll answer it to those three. We owe it, to give it our very best, each and every day. We owe it to give our student-athletes the best because that’s what they’ve done in their career. ‘CP’ and Kathy still do it. They’re not retired like Coach (Conradt).

“I love having Coach (Conradt) around. I love seeing her, I love talking to her, I love our visits. That was my vision when I took the job. I envisioned having coffee with her the morning after a game, going back over how it went, what she thought.

“A lot of people, they’re intimidated by being around or taking over programs that have been coached by coaches like that. I’m not one of them. I’m very comfortable in who I am and what I’m doing. I wear the responsibility of continuing the tradition of the University of Texas and women’s basketball. I don’t take it lightly.”

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