pushing out a documentary<\/a> tied in name, image and likeness money that chronicles its rise to a program-first Final Four berth.<\/p>\nSouth Carolina and LSU feature two of the game\u2019s largest coaching personalities who enjoy ruffling a few feathers, and players to match. The most Texas head coach Vic Schaefer does is toss his suit jacket, a stress meter that never needed checking in a wire-to-wire victory. It\u2019s their second win in three games against the Gamecocks this year. And despite it going down as a \u201cneutral\u201d site, they did it in front of a raucous, garnet-heavy Bon Secours Wellness Arena crowd, situated two hours from Columbia.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a confidence standpoint right now, we are, our kids are pretty confident,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI thought they played like that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas runs on defense, and it used it expertly to explode out of the gates for a 14-0 lead that surprised even Schaefer. Staley was forced to take a timeout less than four minutes into the game, with the Gamecocks having attempted merely one field goal. The three-time reigning SEC tournament champions unraveled and never quite put the pieces back together. They came in having won nine of the last 11 tournaments.<\/p>\n
“Every time that we would try to make a run, we had just like mental lapses, like uncharacteristic turnovers,” Staley said. “Some of it was us, some of it was Texas \u2014 and they took advantage of it every single time.”<\/p>\n
Texas ranks ninth in opponent turnover rate (27.5%), 11th in turnovers per game (22.7), ninth in steal rate (6.9%) and fourth in block rate (4.5%). The Longhorns ratchet up the pressure immediately and don\u2019t give up, making inbounds difficult and forcing five-second violations regularly.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re getting steals, just like when we\u2019re getting the stop, getting the charge, that\u2019s fun for us,\u201d Booker, who earned tournament MVP, said. \u201cMaybe people that really don\u2019t understand basketball like that, that you gotta play both sides of the basketball \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n
In the opening run, Texas scored 10 of its 14 points off five South Carolina turnovers and went 7-of-7 on layups. There was nothing extra on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re definitely playing with ketchup and mustard, nothing [else] no relish, no onion,\u201d Rori Harmon told Yahoo Sports after the 85-68 dismantling of Ole Miss in the semifinal. \u201cI think that works for us, because we work a lot on fundamentals. And in games like this, we fall back on our habits more than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
It starts with Harmon, the steady veteran leader who has been more mature than her age since showing up on campus in Austin. The SEC all-tournament team selection is an extension of Schaefer, echoing her longtime head coach\u2019s \u201cVic-isms\u201d like the hot dog toppings.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Texas led by 45-28 at the break over a fellow Final Four contender. Schaefer is now 111-0 when leading by at least 10 at the half. The most dazzling thing about the Longhorns might have been assistant coach Blair Schaefer\u2019s jacket, or Preston tearing over to the bench to chest-bump Harmon after taking an offensive foul in an 11-point game. The highlight reel circulating on social media might end up being Preston being called for an objectionable technical when she yelled for a back-breaking jumper that put Texas back up, 70-56, with 3:16 to play.<\/p>\n
Booker closed it out with her bread-and-butter back-to-back mid-range jumpers for 18 points (8-of-15) with four rebounds and two assists. Justice Carleton scored 15, shooting 6-of-8 with four rebounds and four assists to earn all-tournament honors. Center Breya Cunningham set the tone early with two blocks and stifling defense inside.<\/p>\n
Nine players scored, everyone brought down at least one rebound and all but two notched an assist. Five players secured a block and another bunch of five Longhorns a steal.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cEach and every one of us that played today did our job and our role and what we needed to do out there,\u201d center Kyla Oldacre said. \u201cAnd not just be out there to be cool. We\u2019re here to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
The business of being a Longhorn is eating in the paint. They scored 40 points on 20-of-34 shooting there while the Gamecocks contested 76% of those shots, per ESPN Stats and Information. It was the 17th game they scored at least 40 inside. They were plus-nine on the boards, neutralizing South Carolina center Madina Okot and limiting forward Joyce Edwards to six points in the first half, all in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Is that what basketball highlights are made of? Maybe not. But dreams of a shiny championship trophy drive this group more than the sparkle elsewhere. With a significant one in their pocket against a team that\u2019s had their number, the Longhorns are locked into a berth to compete for the bigger one \u2014 whether people think they\u2019re a flashy team or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREENVILLE, S.C. \u2014 Madison Booker is unmoved by anyone claiming that Texas basketball lacks a certain oomph. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[46988,2470,5278,77660,9764,27,29,28,5279],"class_list":["post-196292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-bryanna-preston","tag-longhorns","tag-madison-booker","tag-s-c","tag-sec","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-vic-schaefer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}