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Texas Women's Basketball coach Vic Schaefer from SEC Media Days · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Back to the Craig Way Show. Connect with Craig through.
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  Speaker 2: The text line by text Team Texas to eight one
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  five three zero, followed by your message.
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  Speaker 1: Standard message and data rates may applock.
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  Speaker 3: Continuing here on a Thursday afternoon on Sports Radio AM
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  thirteen hundred Zone Craig Wayne Cameron Parker, let's hear from
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  Longhorn's women's basketball coach Vick Schaeffer and talk about First
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  of all, there's what this is an introduction cam with Greg.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you the commissioner. Yeah, Greg Sankie introducing Fix Shaeffer.
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  Speaker 2: He was the first coach to speak today or you
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  assumed me yesterday at the SEC media Days. And of
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  course Fixed Safe was a Mississippi state beforehand, and him
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  and Sinkie have this relationship. So you can kind of
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  tell that these two gentlemen know each other very well
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  because even in fixed statement opening statement, he does reference
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  Reg sink I see all right.
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  Speaker 3: Here's the commission leading into Vick's opening comments.
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  Speaker 4: First coach of the afternoon is our first coach from
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  one of our new member of universities, Vick Schaeffer. Vic
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  is in his fifth year as a head coach at
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  the University of Texas. His fortieth year of coaching is
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  twentieth as a head coach. So Vic and I have
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  intersected all along our career journeys. We first met when
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  he was the head coach at sam Houston State University,
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  literally driving the van first team back then lived that
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  life for a while. He moved to Arkansas to work
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  with Gary Blair as an assistant coach. Was at Texas
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  A and M. Then we re introduced ourselves. I guess
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  it was at the celebration event when we added.
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  Speaker 1: A and M.
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  Speaker 4: And he moved to Mississippi State, where he coached eight years,
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  leading his team to two final fours. Today, October sixteenth
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  is his thirty first wedding anniversary. So I knew I
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  knew Vic when he was the head coach at sam
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  Houston State and his wife was an assistant coach, Holly,
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  at the University of Texas at Arlington. At his wedding,
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  I'm reading he's saying all my exes live in Texas,
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  so you can ask about that and Vic and I
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  actually don't know this until I read this right now.
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  He runs regularly and I got my four miles in
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  this morning as well. So the university of Texas head
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  women's basketball coach Mick Shaeffer.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Commissioner. We have known each other a.
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  Speaker 5: Long time, and we've obviously in our career pass have.
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  Speaker 1: Come a long way.
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  Speaker 5: I think, as the old saying goes, so excited about it,
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  the opportunity to be here today as the head coach
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  at the University of Texas, and excited to have Rory
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  Harmon and Madison Booker with me too. Outstanding young ladies
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  at are not only great players, but are two tremendous
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  young ladies. So we're excited to be a part of
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  this conference. I'm very familiar with the conference obviously, and
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  as I've spent six years an assistant at Arkansas in
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  it and eight years as head coach at Mississippi State,
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  so back in some familiar stomping grounds.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he certainly is now.
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  Speaker 3: Of course, Vick Schaeffer was part of a national championship
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  program as an assistant under Gary Blair at Texas A
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  and M. That was the twenty eleven team, and that
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  was before the AGG He's got into the SEC, but
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  there are other Gary Blair former assistants who are now
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  coaching in the SEC. And he was asked about coaching
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  against that coaching tree.
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  Speaker 5: Well, yeah, coach, you know, I was with him fifteen years,
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  and he's had several assistants throughout the throughout his career,
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  and you know, there's a there's several of us out
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  there that are still doing it and still still.
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  Speaker 1: In this great game.
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  Speaker 5: And you know, I think again, coach and I we
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  were together a long time, won a lot of games together.
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  We had some great, great experiences together both at Arkansas.
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  Speaker 1: And at A and M.
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  Speaker 5: And he's so special to me. I learned, you know,
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  being with him fifteen years. He's a seven or eight
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  time Hall of Famer. I mean, shame on you if
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  you don't learn anything being around him. And I learned
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  so many valuable lessons that you know, have allowed me
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  to have any any of.
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  Speaker 1: The success that I've had.
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  Speaker 5: And so it's it's pretty special, you know. I think
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  as a head coach now, I try to do some
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  of those same things and mentor and developed coaches. I've
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  had four former players on my staff forever. This year
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  I only have two, but for the last four or
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  five six years, I've had four former players on my staff,
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  just trying to give them an opportunity to get in
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  the game, and because I think that's that's our job,
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  you know, as part of what we do as head coaches,
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  and certainly coach was did that as well, so you know,
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  he's still talked to him regularly. He's somebody that I
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  love dearly. And again, he's somebody that I really appreciate.
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  I'll tell you this about Coach Blair. Nobody knows the
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  history of our game or appreciates the history of our.
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  Speaker 1: Game more than that man, and he is.
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  Speaker 5: He's just He's made an unbelievable impact in my life,
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  and I'm forever grateful.
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  Speaker 3: He was also asked how SEC women's basketball has evolved
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  from the days when he was first starting out in
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  the game as a coach.
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  Speaker 5: You know, you have to remember when I got in
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  the league, you had powerhouses. You know, Pat Summit's teams
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  were Georgia with Coach Landers. You know, Joe Champion was
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  finishing up his career and had some great teams at Auburn.
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  Speaker 1: It was a monster league then.
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  Speaker 5: And as a young coach, I can remember sitting courtside
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  at SEC tournaments scouting and going and that's when you
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  really as an assistant, you sit there and go, well,
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  when I've become a head coach, I want my team
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  to look like that team. I want my team to
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  play like that team, and so I really have tried to,
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  you know, throughout the course of that time. You know,
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  you go from ninety seven to ninety eight. My first
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  year at Arkansas we finished sixth, and we can paid
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  it to the final four, you know, and to where
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  we are today.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, I.
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  Speaker 5: Think it's a different time, in a different day, but
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  I think it's you know, the parody that we have
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  in our league right now is really incredible. Back then,
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  you had some really dominant teams and then you had
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  some some teams that maybe weren't you know, they couldn't
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  beat those top teams. I think in our league right now,
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  you've got on any given night, if you're not ready
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  to play, you won't get beat, You'll get embarrassed. And
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  so I think that's where the credibility of our league
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  is tremendous. Coaches, Hall of Fame coaches. You've got future
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  WNBA players, night in and night out. And so I
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  think the you know, leaving the league that I just
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  left to come to this one, all I did was
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  jumped out of the frying panning into the grease.
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  Speaker 1: So it's it's just a you know, it's a monster,
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  and I think you've got to prepare for that.
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  Speaker 5: I think that's why our conference and our coaches are
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  so adamant about staying at sixteen games, because our league
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  is that good, and yet every year we still have
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  a large amount of teams making the NCAA Tournament because
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  of that.
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  Speaker 1: So it's, you know, it's a challenge in a night out.
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  Speaker 5: But I think I've seen, I've been able to see
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  front row an evolution of a conference. And again, I
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  think the parody is what really separates us right now.
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  Speaker 3: The two players he brought with it, Madison Booker, a
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  National Freshman the year, Rory Harmon, who was a preseason
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  All American last year before sustaining the knee injury. And
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  he was asked, You've seen an awful lot from these two.
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  What have you not seen from Madison Booker yet? And
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  what can Rory Harmon bring.
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  Speaker 1: Back to the team.
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  Speaker 5: You know, I think last year I saw a little
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  bit of everything for Madison, you know, as a freshman,
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  as a young player early in her career. Having that,
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  we'll be blanket in Rory Harmon, who's your point guard
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  running your team?
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  Speaker 1: And I said this earlier.
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  Speaker 5: I thought, I thought Rory was really really good last year,
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  was on pace to have a first team All American
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  season as well. But I thought she created Madison and
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  created a lot of opportunities for Rory, and of course
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  Rory being a point guard, she creates opportunities for everybody.
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  Speaker 1: And then when Rory went down.
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  Speaker 5: Most of the time, y'all in basketball, when your point
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  guard goes down, your two guard is who you might
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  lean on.
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  Speaker 1: We went to our three player in Madison.
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  Speaker 5: But I knew after recruiting Madison her entire high school
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  career and knowing my team that I had last year,
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  Madison Booker was the answer.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't a tryout. That's who was going to be
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  our point guard.
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  Speaker 5: And while we had some bumps in the road along
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  the way early, the kid has so much presence for
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  such a young player, she had tremendous.
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  Speaker 1: Presence on the floor.
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  Speaker 5: She nothing rattled her her first three four minutes in
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  that very first game against Baylor, when we only had
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  three days to get ready, that was the worst of
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  the worst. After that, I took her out, and then
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  when we put her back in I never saw that again.
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  She was just she was really ready to embrace the
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  role that she was in. And so you have to
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  give the kid a ton of credit what she was
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  able to do leading that team. That team won thirty
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  three games. In the history of Texas women's basketball, they've
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  only won more games one time, and that's when they
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  won the national championship in nineteen eighty six and they
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  were thirty four to oh But that team would not
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  have been that if it hadn't have been for Madison
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  Booker embracing being the point guard. So now you fast
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  forward to where we are now, Madison Booker, there's nobody
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  more excited on our team that Rory Harmon's back than
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  Madison Booker because she wants to go over there and
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  get on the wing where she's really comfortable.
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  Speaker 1: Just think that it allows us as a team.
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  Speaker 5: We've got a lot of flexibility there, and we have
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  a special freshman in Breonna Preston who's going to be
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  an unbelievable point guard force.
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  Speaker 1: But Rory just.
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  Speaker 5: Rory's presence, how hard she plays, the energy that she
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  plays with permeates through my team every day, every game,
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  and I think she really is a settling influence on
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  my entire team, and it gives my team a lot
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  of confidence.
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  Speaker 1: And I know this.
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  Speaker 5: It gives her head coach a lot of confidence to
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  know that we have her back on the floor leading
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  our team. And so it's a really good feeling to
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  know we've got great guard play.
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  Speaker 1: You win with guard play in basketball. You have notes.
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  Speaker 5: You can have all the size in the world, be
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  if you don't have a guard play, you got no chance.
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  We've got guard play this year, and I've got depth
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  at guard play with Brie and Jordan Lee to exceptional freshmen.
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  Leilophilia y'all is a monster. She's gonna be so good.
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  Shay Holly has been the glued to my my program
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  for the last few years. So I just named off
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  five six guards that they're all gonna play every night,
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  and they're gonna play a lot, and they're all going
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  to impact our team.
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  Speaker 1: And so.
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  Speaker 5: I think our team, our future is in really good
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  shape at the guard spot. And this year's team, we
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  finally have some depth. I just haven't had it the
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  last couple of years. And give those teams credit, they've
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  learned how to stat of foul trouble and play play
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  through some issues, but this year's team we finally have depth.
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  Speaker 1: All right.
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  Speaker 3: So there's from Vick Shaefer, Texas women's head coach. Well here,
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  Rodney Terry coming up next, as well as more from
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  Steve Sarcasian. We'll be back to wrap up our number
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  two on Sports Radio AM thirteen Under the Phone.