After Texas women\u2019s basketball lost starting center Kyla Oldacre and forward Justice Carlton to graduation and the transfer portal over the offseason, head coach Vic Schaefer expects senior forward Breya Cunningham to step into a much bigger role this season.<\/p>\n
Cunningham played in 39 games last season, averaging 7.7 points and 5.6 rebounds in 18.9 minutes per game. Schaefer said he wants her to get into shape to play about 30 minutes a game this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting in better shape to be able to sustain that high level of play for 30 minutes, and probably just being more confident in myself,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cKnowing that my team needs me, my team wants me to be out on the floor. So, playing strong, playing hard and giving it my all for those whole 30 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 6 feet 4 inches, Cunningham is the second-tallest player on the team to junior center Lovisa Asbrink Hose and will be a force down under for the aggressive style of play Schaefer wants this season.<\/p>\n
Along with her on-court performance, Cunningham has stepped into a vocal leadership role alongside senior forward Madison Booker and junior guard Bryanna Preston. With five freshmen joining the Longhorns, those veteran leaders are trying to translate what they\u2019ve learned at Texas to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think intensity is new to the young faces from high school. That intensity is definitely different from college,\u201d Booker said. \u201cI think that\u2019s really our main teaching, our main trait that we\u2019re trying to get them to understand is what intensity looks like, what playing hard looks like, what giving your all looks like, and for them to understand when you practice these things in the games, it will come extremely easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intensity and toughness have been a recurring theme. For a team that was fifth in the Southeastern Conference in offensive rebounds last season, Cunningham looks to continue the trend of dominating the board and creating extra opportunities for her team.<\/p>\n
When asked about Cunningham\u2019s strength, Schaefer praised her through an interesting hypothetical.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I have to get cornered in a back alley somewhere, I want Breya Cunningham,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cI love her toughness, her competitive spirit. She\u2019ll get down there and fight with you a little bit, and so I just got to teach her to fight within some rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those rules did elude Cunningham at times last season, fouling out of five games for Texas. While conditioning and a bigger role will contribute towards Schaefer\u2019s goals for Cunningham, discipline may be the determining factor.<\/p>\n
She\u2019ll get her first test in a scrimmage game on Monday against UConn and reigning National Player of the Year, junior forward Sarah Strong. The Huskies\u2019 identity is playing through their frontcourt, putting Cunningham at the front and center of defensive attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a great test for us, playing against UConn, our first game as a team,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to really challenge us. It\u2019s going to push us. It\u2019s going to give us some real adversity early in the season. Really tell us who we are early and what we need to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Texas women\u2019s basketball lost starting center Kyla Oldacre and forward Justice Carlton to graduation and the transfer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-465286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465286","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=465286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}