Longhorns face roster overhaul after Final Four run<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Texas]()
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Texas Longhorns guard Sarah Graves (6) shoots for three points in the second half as the Texas Longhorns play the Missouri State Bears in the first round of the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament at the Moody Center in Austin, March 20, 2026. Texas won the game 87-45.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Deciding to walk on at Texas<\/p>\n
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Texas Longhorns guard Sarah Graves (6) shoots a 3-pointer during the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament Elite 8 game against Michigan at Dickies Arena on Monday, March 30, 2026 in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Graves enrolled at Texas in 2022 from Keller High School and is pursuing a finance major at the UT McCombs School of Business with plans to graduate this year. A 5-foot-9 guard for her high school team, she decided to take a long shot at Texas and try out as a walk\u2011on. At the time, Texas had made the NCAA Tournament the previous seven years it was played.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI told her, \u2018You\u2019re getting a McCombs degree,\u2019\u201d said her father, John Graves, pointing out that she was already tackling a big ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201c\u2018If you survive Vic Schaefer,’\u201d he recalled telling her, \u201c’that\u2019s a life lesson that will serve you the rest of your life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There were no guarantees; no promise of playing time, recognition or even a roster spot. On top of that, she got sick just before tryouts.<\/p>\n
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\u201cShe kept going. She never cracked,\u201d her father said.<\/p>\n
She stayed late in the practice facility, running extra reps with the women\u2019s practice team, pushing through sickness and exhaustion. Day after day, she kept at it \u2014 and made the team. That resilience became the foundation of her Texas career.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s a special kid,” John Graves said. “To do all that without knowing if you’ll play, I know why people don’t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Texas Longhorns guard Sarah Graves (6) celebrates after making a free throw during the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament Sweet 16 game against Kentucky at Dickies Arena on Saturday, March 28, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
She played one minute her first season, but said her heart raced constantly from the bench. She leapt after defensive stops, mimed shooting bows and arrows after long threes and turned to the fans, arms flailing, urging them to get loud. She was all in: every cheer, every gesture, every ounce of energy on the court and on the bench.<\/p>\n
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During the 2023-24 season, Schaefer awarded her a scholarship.<\/p>\n
As Texas drew more attention the past few seasons, fans began to notice a player \u2014 still in her pregame long sleeve \u2014 cheering as if she had scored the game-winning shot every time her teammates made a play.<\/p>\n
The ‘Put Sarah In’ movement begins<\/p>\n
Her parents said the first signs came from students. During blowouts, handmade \u201cPut Sarah In\u201d posters began appearing; at first as a student section joke, then as something bigger. Students would chant nonstop, urging Schaefer to put in a player who hadn\u2019t seen the court all game.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen I first heard the chants, I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Graves’ mother, Nicole Graves. \u201cI thought, \u2018Are they saying Sarah? Our daughter?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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Texas Longhorns guard Sarah Graves (6) leaves the court after winning the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament Sweet 16 game against Kentucky at Dickies Arena on Saturday, March 28, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Over time, the chants grew, Sarah blushed and teammates clapped along to the beat as the noise swelled: \u201cTexas scores \u2014 PUT SARAH IN!\u201d<\/p>\n
What started with students and younger girls wanting a photo or autograph soon ranged from fans with grey hair to little boys holding out signage, yelling for the little-used reserve.<\/p>\n
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\u201cGetting to chat with them is one of my favorite things,\u201d Graves said.<\/p>\n
On the bench, she has pushed fans to cheer, but her teammates say her impact runs deeper. Top scorer and team leader Madison Booker called her \u201cmy dawg.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe honestly instills so much confidence in everybody on this team,\u201d Booker said. The two talk about basketball and life \u2014 conversations that the All-American said\u00a0reflect the quiet leadership Graves has offered for years.<\/p>\n
Doing it for the love of the game<\/p>\n
But Graves doesn\u2019t believe she is unique.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere are so many benchwarmers who are exactly like me,\u201d Graves said. \u201cWe do a lot behind the scenes purely for the love of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
On LinkedIn, Graves is known for sharing thoughts and lessons on various topics, such as personal branding, confidence, growth through failure and what it means to stay authentic in the sports industry. After the Longhorn ran up big scores over their opponents in the NCAA Tournament, the coach called on her to play in both the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight wins at Dickies Arena \u2014 the same Fort Worth venue of her high school graduation ceremony.<\/p>\n
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Texas Longhorns guards Bryanna Preston (1) and Sarah Graves (6) celebrate winning the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament Elite 8 game against Michigan at Dickies Arena on Monday, March 30, 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a full\u2011circle moment,\u201d Graves said before the Sweet 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In the Sweet 16 game, she hit two technical free throws after teammate Aaliyah Crump pointed to her to go into the game, saying postgame that Sarah deserved to play in that arena.<\/p>\n
Graves and her parents thought the Sweet 16 might have been her final NCAA Tournament appearance. But in the Elite Eight, with Texas comfortably ahead and less than three minutes left, the chant started again \u2014 not all at once, but with enough force to make it clear the crowd wanted Schaefer to hear them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told coach I didn\u2019t think I was going to go in, and he said, \u2018Do you not hear the thousands of fans chanting for you?\u2019\u201d Graves recalled with a smile.<\/p>\n
As she stepped onto the court, fans and the players on the bench rose to their feet. And when she buried a jumper with less than 10 seconds remaining, Dickies Arena exploded.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy teammates on the bench were saying, \u2018Sarah, I think you made the scouting report, so you might need to give them a head fake,\u2019\u201d Graves said, referring to the research that opposing \u00a0teams do on key players. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I\u2019ve made the scouting report?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the game, her family embraced in a group hug, tears and smiles on their faces, each wearing a shirt with her jersey number 6. Her mother, tears in her eyes, explained the feeling she gets, saying when these moments happen, it makes everything worth it.<\/p>\n
Even in Texas\u2019 season-ending Final Four loss to UCLA, when Graves checked into the game for one final time, the moment still carried the weight of everything she had built over four years.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s like a sweet payoff of four years of grind,\u201d John Graves said. \u201cFour years of grind and grit that nobody else saw.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Longhorns guard Sarah Graves (6) celebrates with the bench in the second half as the Texas Longhorns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29530,48876,81012,83229,87026,27,29,537,5276,28,5279,13548],"class_list":{"0":"post-246323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-final-four","9":"tag-march-madness","10":"tag-march-madness-tournament","11":"tag-ncaa-march-madness-tournament","12":"tag-sarah-graves","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-longhorns","16":"tag-texas-longhorns-women-s-basketball","17":"tag-texas-news","18":"tag-vic-schaefer","19":"tag-women-s-college-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246323","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=246323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}