{"id":228167,"date":"2026-03-31T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228167\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:39:11","slug":"texas-womens-basketball-team-went-from-soft-back-to-the-final-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/228167\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas women’s basketball team went from ‘soft’ back to the Final Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH, TX \u2015 Six weeks ago, Texas coach Vic Schaefer<\/a> called his team “soft.” On Monday, Schaefer called the Longhorns<\/a> “Texas tough” before cutting down the nets after a 77-41 win over Michigan<\/a> in the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

On February 12, Schaefer openly questioned the “heart” of Texas’s players<\/a> after a brutal 86-70 loss to Vanderbilt. The Longhorns found themselves down by as many as 27 points against the Commodores during a rough shooting night. Texas shot 38% from the field, and its usual perimeter production disappeared. The Longhorns made three shots from beyond the arc to the Commodores’ nine.<\/p>\n

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“We had no heart tonight. We had no toughness. No competitive spirit. We’re soft. We were whining. Complaining, but no toughness. So you know what? I’ve been doing this a while. I bet I’ll fix it,” Schaefer said at the time.<\/p>\n

True to his word, the Longhorns coach did fix whatever was plaguing his roster. Texas has 12 consecutive victories since its coach publicly called the team out, including a massive win over the Wolverines to punch its ticket to the Final Four<\/a> for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

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See women’s March Madness 2026, from mascots and fans to celebrities<\/p>\n

The Alabama bench celebrate after a big three-point shot by Alabama Crimson Tide guard Karly Weathers (22) in the fourth quarter against Louisville during the 2026 NCAA Women’s March Madness<\/a> Second Round basketball at the KFC Yum Center In Louisville, Ky. Weathers finished with 13 points. March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

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The Alabama bench celebrate after a big three-point shot by Alabama Crimson Tide guard Karly Weathers (22) in the fourth quarter against Louisville during the 2026 NCAA Women’s March Madness<\/a> Second Round basketball at the KFC Yum Center In Louisville, Ky. Weathers finished with 13 points. March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

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Laura Ziegler of the Louisville Cardinals kisses the court after her team’s 69-68 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at KFC YUM! Center on March 23, 2026 in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

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Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish leprechaun mascot cheer prior to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament second round game at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus on March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

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Louisville fans cheer during a first-round game between the Louisville Cardinals and Vermont Catamounts in the 2026 NCAA Women\u00e2\u00d5s Basketball Tournament at the KFC Yum Center, March 21, 2026, in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

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The Notre Dame Fighting Irish huddle up prior to the start of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Second Round game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Jerome Schottenstein Center on March 23, 2026 in Columbus, Ohio. Notre Dame defeated Ohio Sate 83-73.<\/p>\n

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A Louisville fan held a sign in the final seconds as the Cards defeated Alabama 69-68 to move on to the Sweet 16 during the 2026 NCAA Women’s March Madness Second Round basketball at the KFC Yum Center In Louisville, Ky. March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

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Alabama mascot Big Al works the crowd during a first-round game between the Rhode Island Rams and Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2026 NCAA Women\u00d5s Basketball Tournament at the KFC Yum Center, March 21, 2026, in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

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The Ohio State Buckeyes sit for the starting lineup prior to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament second round game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus on March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

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Ohio State Buckeyes fans react to a foul call during the NCAA women’s basketball tournament second round game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus on March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

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A member of the Louisville Cardinals band performs during the third quarter against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at KFC YUM! Center on March 23, 2026 in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

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A player spins a basketball branded with the NCAA logo before a game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Louisville Cardinals in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at KFC YUM! Center on March 23, 2026 in Louisville, Ky.<\/p>\n

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The Iowa State Cyclones mascot on the court during a break against the Syracuse Orange in the first half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Ct. on Mar 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

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Guard Kylie Feuerbach #4 of the Iowa Hawkeyes interacts with fans after a match-up against the FDU Knights on March 21, 2026 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena during the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in Iowa City, Iowa.<\/p>\n

“That next day in practice, really, it’s been different ever since, and it started with Madison (Booker) and her voice. She was very vocal that day. Rori (Harmon) was helping a little, but Madison was way different,” Schaefer said.<\/p>\n

“How they’ve responded is exactly what I thought they’d do. I mean, these kids, they have been nothing but tough. They have been nothing but competitive since that day. They have answered the bell every night, and I think that speaks volumes about who they are, what they’re about, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”<\/p>\n

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Schaefer and Texas will now go onto Phoenix with the hopes of winning the program’s first championship in 40 years<\/a>. On Friday, the Longhorns will begin their Final Four journey with a rematch against the UCLA Bruins, whom they beat in November, 76-65. Texas will be ready, and according to Madison Booker<\/a>, her coach won’t have to worry about the Longhorns being “soft” anymore.<\/p>\n

“We never want to hear our head coach say that about the team he recruited because we’re so much better than that,” Booker said.<\/p>\n

“You know, like we told him … We say we have heart, and I think after that game we kind of turned it around. You know, I hope he sees we have heart now. That will never happen again. I think we will never play that bad or make sure we won’t play that bad, but yeah, that was just the mindset from us (from that day forward).”<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas women’s basketball got tough just in time for Final Four run<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, TX \u2015 Six weeks ago, Texas coach Vic Schaefer called his team “soft.” On Monday, Schaefer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2470,27,29,28,20452,15828,5279],"class_list":{"0":"post-228167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-longhorns","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-texas-headlines","11":"tag-texas-news","12":"tag-the-commodores","13":"tag-the-longhorns","14":"tag-vic-schaefer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228167","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=228167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}