MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — Vic Schaefer is the son of an Army colonel, so discipline is a hallmark of his Texas basketball operation.
“I was raised with those values, that integrity, and those morals,” Schaefer said Wednesday at the SEC spring meetings. “I will not compromise those, and I don’t believe the parents of my current roster would want me to.”
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Compromise is one thing. Successfully playing the long game is another.
Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer talks to forward Justice Carlton (11) during the NCAA Final Four game against UCLA at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Schaefer is the first to admit he isn’t the easiest coach to play for, and today’s players are as free as any in the history of the game when it comes to mobility. If they don’t like School A, they can transfer to School B or School C. Schaefer just bore witness to the reality threefold when he lost a pair of starters and a potential future star to the NCAA transfer portal in the days following the most devastating defeat of his Hall of Fame career.
Riverdale Ridge senior Brihanna Crittendon (3) hugs University of Texas women’s basketball head coach Vic Schaefer after a game against Monarch where Crittendon broke the 43-year-old record to become the all-time leading scorer in state history on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Riverdale Ridge High School in Thornton, Colo.
Timothy Hurst/Denver Post via Getty Images
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Question is, did Jordan Lee, Justice Carlton and Aaliyah Crump leave for greener pastures, quieter pastures or both? Their exits created debates surrounding Schaefer’s hard-charging coaching style — one that has produced four Final Four teams, numerous conference championships and some productive people outside the game.
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Players like Rori Harmon, Madison Booker, Shay Holle and Shaylee Gonzales swear by him.
His way works, but is it championship sustainable in the fluid portal/NIL era?
The naked eye saw Schaefer coach two teams to the national semifinals in consecutive years, but the last one ended with his future stars jumping ship. The best programs figure out how to retain prime talent while bringing in the best freshmen and then adding a veteran piece or two from the portal.
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This may the first time in many a year that Schaefer has questioned his way of doing business. He may not reveal it publicly, but having been around him, I know he’s scheming to get the Horns over the hump. He knows losing young talent to the portal isn’t a recipe for long-term success. The only certainty in life is change and even a successful coach like Schaefer must tweak a thing or two to remain among the elite.
Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker (35) sits in a hallway after the loss to UCLA in the NCAA Final Four at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
The title that got away for Texas
Schaefer will never get over the 2026 season finale. \
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The Longhorns were the best team in Phoenix on Final Four weekend, but history only remembers the winners. The catastrophic 51-44 national semifinal loss to the eventual champion UCLA Bruins has played on a loop in Schaefer’s analytical mind more times than he cares to count in the weeks since.
“I don’t know that I will ever get over that one,” he said. “That will probably haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Only that elusive national championship will ease those small knives stabbing into his heart. The big trophy is the only piece of hardware missing from the family trophy case.
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If you want perspective on the pain Schaefer is feeling, remember that he coached in two national championship games at Mississippi State before he arrived in Austin and lost one of those to Notre Dame on Arike Ogunbowale’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer in 2018.
UCLA was there for the taking, but Schaefer’s best player — Booker, the sweet-shooting forward — missed 20 of her 23 field-goal goal attempts, including a Final Four-record 17 straight, to lowlight the worst evening of her decorated college career.
Texas Longhorns guard Sarah Graves (6) celebrates with guard Bryanna Preston (1) following the Longhorns’ 87-45 win over the Missouri State Bears in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at the Moody Center in Austin, March 20, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
The Texas players that went away
Texas returns Booker, point guard Bryanna Preston and forward Breya Cunningham as the nucleus of the 2027 group along with a talented freshman class that includes Brihanna Crittendon and Addison Bjorn, but the talk in North Florida this week centered on who left and why.
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The offseason has brought renewed hope, but the days following the loss were rocky with the transfers of sophomore starters Carlton (to Houston) and Lee (South Carolina) along with freshman reserve guard Crump (Duke).
Carlton was no surprise for those who follow the program. Schaefer had problems with her defense and their personalities didn’t always mesh. Their last on-court exchange — in the season finale — wasn’t the picture of harmony. Schaefer removed her with 5 minutes, 56 seconds left and Carlton brushed by him, drawing a glare from the coach.
Unbeknownst to many, she wouldn’t play another second for the Longhorns.
“My actual decision to leave Texas was pretty easy,” Carlton told the Houston Chronicle upon announcing her transfer. “They made it pretty easy.”
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Texas Longhorns guard Jordan Lee (7) celebrates a score during the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Elite 8 game against Michigan at Dickies Arena on Monday, March 30, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Lee was a surprise exit from the periphery because she was poised to replace Harmon as the second cog in the Longhorn machine. Leaving for Crump’s South Carolina dynasty was a sizable punch in the gut because she’s joining a loaded roster.
Crump had her moments, but also went some stretches with limited minutes, presumably because her defense wasn’t yet up to program standards despite her massive upside.
“Two of them I knew that people were involved in trying to see what else was out there with them,” Schaefer said without naming names. “The third one had no option to come back. I knew it was going on, and so I think that’s where you’re at and for me — a guy that’s coached so long — I think what that says is that this is the day and age that we’re in, and what used to be important may not be as important anymore, and so I just have to learn to deal with it and adapt.”
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Schaefer is accountable. He examines himself as hard as he watches game film, but does that mean, at age 65, that he’ll change a model that has worked so well for him in his quarter century as a head coach?
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“I’m in the kid business,” Schaefer said. “I don’t like losing anybody for any reason because I wear that responsibility as something that I wish there was a different outcome. I wish if I needed to do something differently, I need to do it differently. I don’t like losing kids like that. I’ve never lost kids like that. As I go back and look at the season — or the seasons that they were here — I just don’t know what else that I could have done differently in a big way. Maybe some little nuances that I could have, but for the reasons given, it’s just sometimes these things happen.”
The sport is the same, but the marketplace has changed. Legendary football coach Nick Saban knew as much and the portal and NIL played a role in him leaving the sidelines despite having plenty of gas left in his coaching tank. Schaefer will coach until the wheels fall off, but if he wants to continue to take teams to Final Fours and retain elite talent, it will have to be a bit more basketball and less barracks.