NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - FAIRFIELD VS TEXAS

March 17, 2022

Vic Schaefer

Joanne Allen-Taylor

Audrey Warren

Texas Longhorns

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you would like to give an opening statement, we can get going.

VIC SCHAEFER: First I want to congratulate the teams that are here, University of Utah, University of Arkansas and Fairfield. Just want to welcome them to Austin and congratulate them on a great year.

Obviously I'm extremely excited for our kids. It is a tremendous event. It's what you work for all year. Sometimes it's what you are work for in your playing career and coaching career. For us to be able to host here in the University of Texas, I couldn't be more proud and happy for our kids. They have worked extremely hard. And for these two as seniors, it's just really gratifying for me as a coach to be here with them today. Thank you for having us and again I'm excited about the opportunity. Obviously this team is coming off a big win over the weekended. Played extremely well. Back-to-back three games in 40 hours. Beating two top 10 teams within 20 hours of each other. Doing it our way. I've said that now a couple of times since then. It's not like they are standing in a 2-3 zone playing okay miss defense. They are really playing hard just playing Texas basketball.

It's hard to do. These young ladies have done it. And did it over the weekend so now we get to play in the next tournament.

Excited about this opportunity. And really, happy about our university and the city of Austin to be able to host this event. Hopefully we will have a great crowd and provide a great experience for the four teams that are here. There are some really great universities being represented. So that being said, I'll turn it back to you.

Q. Jo, I want to ask about Rori, I know there's an age difference there, what was your level of familiarity before we got to UT being from Houston, and how have you seen her grow as a point guard?

JOANNE ALLEN-TAYLOR: I've always known Rori because we come from the same district. She went to Cy Creek High School. I went to Cy Falls so I played against her in my senior year in high school. Even then I knew she was going to be a tough, tough player. When she committed to the University of Texas I was very excited because I knew she'll fit well with the system. The way she plays, extremely hard on both ends of the floor.

So yeah, I was familiar with her before she got here and she's grown so much you can see over this past season from the beginning of the season to now, how her game has changed, her leadership has changed on this team. She's definitely has grown a lot.

Q. Can you expand a little bit on that, the areas in which her games and leadership have changed?

JOANNE ALLEN-TAYLOR: Yep, definitely she sets the tone for us. So she gets us going on that end. We follow suit and she plays hard on the ball. It makes us want to play even harder in our match-ups. Offensively she has been really, really key right now. High-level scorer in this tournament this past weekend, it's changed the dynamic of our team. It's taken pressure off a lot of us, because she is bringing up buckets for us. She's grown in this area just over this past weekend but her leadership, her voice getting us in huddles, bringing us in telling where we have to be offensively. She's grown in this aspect of a point guard really.

Q. Audrey, can you talk us through the mentality of this time over this win streak. There was the back-to-back losses there and then you guys just took off. What's been the difference in this team since then?

AUDREY WARREN: I think that the difference has been just our focus on little details I think a lot of us kind of swept those under the rug and didn't see the importance of it after you lose back to back like we did, it's key to focus on what you can get better at. I think that's what everybody did especially in practice. We locked down defensively knowing that's what was going to win games essentially. I think everybody started getting in the gym a lot more after those two losses. I think that's why everyone is hitting shots now.

So I think everyone coming together and focusing on what needed to be done to not make those mistakes again.

Q. Playing at home for these first games, potentially the second game, what does that do for this team in terms of staying in your own place and being in your own environment right now?

AUDREY WARREN: I think anybody getting to host gives a huge advantage having your home court. I hope to see a lot of fans in the stands from the area. The traveling and staying in the hotel and being in an unfamiliar area gives a lot of teams disadvantages, and I think we are going to take that to what we need to win the game.

Q. Vic, what are your thoughts on No. 11 on Fairfield and what does she bring. How much of a challenge will that be to defend her?

VIC SCHAEFER: Well, she is an incredible player. We have watched quite a bit of film on them, and have a tremendous amount of respect for them and her in particular. She really is a special basketball player can make shots, tough shots. It's going to take a tremendous team effort to keep an eye on her. It won't be one person doing the job.

Coach does a great job of putting her in a position to be successful I think her teammates have a great awareness of where she is and how to get the ball at the right time.

So we have got our hands full. This is a very veteran team. Starting a bunch of seniors and grad transfers, obviously a very confident team having lost only one game since December 9th she presents a lot of problems for us. And we are going to have to be on point with her.

Q. For both players, with all the conversations around equity between the men's and women's tournaments last year, have you noticed any changes or even had discussion within the past year among yourselves about what needs to change?

AUDREY WARREN: I think we all had discussions about it, whether it's related to basketball or not, we talk about the equity between men and women. As far as having seen a difference, first day, so I'm not really sure yet but I know the NCAA and everyone else is going to work really hard to make sure both sides feel very comfortable and kind of get the same things.

JOANNE ALLEN-TAYLOR: Just to follow up to that, to piggyback off of that, it's just nice that this year on the same level, on the same playing field there is no difference between postseason women's basketball and postseason's men's basketball. It's just nice to be on the same kind of stage that the men get this year.

Q. This question is for Jo and Audrey: For lack of a better word, are y'all having fun this season? Are you able to enjoy what this season is or you don't want to stop and smell the roses since there's a lot ahead of you?

AUDREY WARREN: I think there's a yes and no with that. Yes, we are having fun. No, we don't want to smell the roses because we are not done yet. We want to keep having fun. I think to all of us winning equals fun. When you are winning like we are right now and competing like we are, I think you can see on our faces on the court and off the court how much fun we are having.

JOANNE ALLEN-TAYLOR: Just to go off of that, winning is always fun but I think Coach says this a lot, success is so fleeting, so you always want to keep chasing it. You get that championship and then after that, what's next? You stop working or you just keeping going. You want to feel that again.

We don't want to bask in what we have accomplished. We want to keep going.

Q. Just to follow up on that point you did win the Big 12 Tournament championship. Huge moment. Got over a program that had been a struggle. Was there a celebration moment, then was there a stepback, collective okay, that's behind us now? What was that conversation like?

AUDREY WARREN: Yeah, we had Monday off, so I think all of us took that day to celebrate and bask in the championship. Right after the game we celebrated all night up until we landed. Tuesday we knew it was time to go back to work. We are not done. That was one championship down; we are reaching for another one. We knew that we couldn't -- that that championship didn't define who we were. We still needed to come to work and be ready for the next game.

Q. Jo, last year on the run to the Elite Eight, did you learn anything about quote/unquote championship basketball is, what it means to win a championship in March?

JOANNE ALLEN-TAYLOR: More so that like if you come to play and you play your best basketball, it could be your night. You have to be locked in and focused every game. Any team has a chance. Games are not won on paper. I know last season a lot of people counted us out for most of those games. We just played Texas basketball. We stuck to our principles and that's what won us the game. So I think going into this tournament this year, just to follow that just to play our style of basketball and see where that gets us.

Q. I have a question about your underclassmen and how you think the journey has been of getting them on board. You've talked about having a chip on your shoulder this year. What has been the journey of getting them on board, not only the style of Texas basketball but understanding something is on the line for you two as seniors?

AUDREY WARREN: It's been a journey getting them on board and getting their mind focused on college basketball. A lot of young athletes when they get to college straight from high school, you're more than likely your best player at your high school. So you probably have played a lot, but then you get to college and things might not be the same for you. I think that's discouraging for a lot of the athletes. But I think Jo, Lauren and I and anybody else that's and upperclassmen really try to help them realize it's a process. It's a team thing now and everybody, whether you are in practice or whether we are out on the track or whether we are going through the program, it's a game everybody has a part in what they do. They have a role.

Coach has always talked about doing your role and doing it to the best of your ability. That's going to help everybody win.

Q. I want be to follow up with you on two things: First the equity question that I asked the players, where do you think this sport still needs to go and what needs to be done from the NCAA side but also from anything else, fans, media, people within the game to keep elevating it?

VIC SCHAEFER: I am quite confident. Again, it's the first day, I've been on the court this morning early at seven for something, you notice the March Madness insignias and the NCAA insignias down there which weren't there last year when we were really all over this part of Texas trying to play in the NCAA Tournament. So that's the first thing you notice, those things that weren't there a year ago.

Again, I hope, it's my sincerest hopes, those folks realize the mistakes that were made and that was at the forefront of their plans going into this year. I feel confident that our young ladies, our young women are going to have a great experience in the NCAA Tournament, as all teams will. It's a great event. It's an incredible tournament. They need to. The University of Texas will do their part to make sure these four teams have an unbelievable experience because that's what the University of Texas is all about.

So they are at a great place. If there is something missing, our folks here will make sure they don't even know it, because they will do their part to make sure it's a great event.

Q. Obviously you've been coaching this game for a long time. What have you seen over the course of your career as far as advancements in that area?

VIC SCHAEFER: Well, Coach Conrad and I sit around and I talk about it all the time. We have driven the van. We've gotten out, coached, got in the van and driven the van back home. We have washed uniforms, hung dry them. We have done all that. Through the course of time you can look back over the course of the last 25, 30 years the investment that I think athletic departments make in women's basketball has changed drastically.

Now at the University of Texas, it's always been there. It's something that's always been very important here. I think you have to give our administration here a lot of credit. Chris Plonsky, who has been here a long, long time has been a part of that.

So I just think when you talk to folks who have done it probably as long as I have and then some, we have people on our staff those jobs weren't even here 20, 25 years ago. Those opportunities weren't there. The way you are able to take care of your student-athletes, travel, things of that nature it's just different. Rightfully so.

I mean, our folks here just in the 12,000 that we had a week ago for Oklahoma State, that's the value that a women's basketball program can provide your university. Having 12,000 people in the gym raising $150,000 for a charity. That's what a women's basketball program can provide for your university, the experience for your student-athletes for the community, for the city.

The positive exposure that you get for an event like that, you can't put a price tag on that. There is no advertisement for the University of Texas that can do what that day in two hours did. So I think there is all kind of things like that. When you turn on the TV and there's 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 at a game, whether you're a women's basketball fan or not, you turn on the TV and see an arena full of people, you say whoa, who's playing? There's a lot of people there? Let me watch. The next thing you know you've watched it 30 minutes, an hour, two hours, now you've become a fan. Or you've become impacted by hey, that place might be a pretty special place. I've got a daughter or son that's looking into a school. They show a lot of support for their team. That's the impact that a women's basketball program can provide for a university.

For our young ladies, I've got some incredible young women that do an incredible job in representing this university. If you've been to any of our games, when the game is over we don't go back to the locker room for an hour. They are going to sign every autograph and take every picture with every little kid at the game. It ain't just little kids but older kids, parents and grandparents. They truly believe that they enjoy watching them play. If you are a Texas Longhorn that becomes your kids. They are not even my team to seem of them, that's their girls. That's what it's all about.

That's a lot that our program and programs across the country can do for your university and think our kids and our program is starting to come into that in our second year.

Q. On Rori, where do you think the poise and confidence that she plays with comes from?

VIC SCHAEFER: I think the kid is a confident kid. She's got a tremendous skill set. I think what separates Rori is the thought for the day that I have, it says I believe effort magnifies talent and effort unifies a team. That's our thought for the day. Her effort magnifies her talent. You come to practice, you are going to see that kid work hard every day. She is the first one out on defense on the floor. She is busting it for three minutes every day. She doesn't take plays off. She knows the importance of her role on our team on both ends.

This is my argument for anyone that wants to say well -- there has been some talk about why she wasn't on the First Team All Big 12. All these awards go to people that score a lot of points or score and rebound and all that. Rori Harmon plays both ends of the floor and she plays both ends just as hard. When you are talking about a kid that impacts a game, it's not just her points or her assists or lack of turnovers that impact a game. It's what she brings to the table on the other end that a lot of kids don't do. Let's just call it like it is. They don't do that. If you get ten people in the room and say, you got first pick, who do you want? I find it hard to believe that she's not going to be one of the first ten kids picked because of what she brings to the table, and how she plays the game on both ends of the floor. That's what's hard to find in today's game. There is lot of people that want to score the ball but they don't want to guard. And she enjoys that piece of the game. She enjoys guarding. She enjoys making other people miserable, and her teammates do too.

Again, if I'm her teammate and see Rori Harmon picking up 94 feet and I'm behind her, I'm probably looking at her, going okay she is going pretty hard, I guess I'll play pretty hard behind her. If you are soft on the ball, you are probably going to be soft behind the ball, but if you are playing your rear off on the ball, you are probably are going to have four behind you playing really hard too. That's the value that she brings to our table. Just one of the values, but it's an incredible value that's important to your program.

Q. Coach, I'm sure your team loved their experience last year but you think they fully got to enjoy it, considering the bubble and limited fans in San Antonio, do you think they fully got to enjoy the March experience?

VIC SCHAEFER: I think you and I both know it's difficult circumstances. They certainly enjoyed winning and we got to have some fans at our game there, but that's such a big place. That arena is hardly cozy. There is a lot of room in there. Even though we had a lot of fans there, they were just spread out because that's what was required, if you were going to go to the game, because we were in the middle of the pandemic. We probably had as many fans as anybody because of the proximity.

They did enjoy it. They had an incredible experience winning games. They beat a top 10 UCLA and another top 6 or 7 Maryland. So they had that experience but did they get to really full enjoy it? Absolutely not. You are waking up every morning walking across the street, testing. Getting tested, waiting in line, getting tested, and have to walk back. You get up in the morning and walk out of the hotel room, there is food on a table out in the hall, you get your food, you go back in your room to sit by yourself. That's a miserable way to live. That was every day.

So nobody wants to live that way. We are getting back to closer to having some type of normalcy. That's what you want your kids to experience. You've had an incredible year, which they have. They have really achieved a great deal. They are getting to host of the NCAA Tournament. They have achieved a 2 seed, which is really hard to do. They won the Big 12 Tournament championship, which is really hard to do. So I want them to enjoy it. I asked the same question.

Somebody asked about are they having fun? I asked them a while back, because it's important to me that they have fun. It's a game, they should have fun. Both of them answered it the same way they did today, winning is fun. I always say it's hard to have fun when you are getting your butt beat. I think they are having fun because they are experiencing the fruits of their labor. These kids work extremely hard. They play hard. This tournament, the way it is right now this is the way it is supposed to be.

Again, we need fans in the stands to provide a great atmosphere for this event. There is four great teams, four great coaches, a lot of great players, it's our job to provide them with a great experience, in my opinion. So I'm hoping we will do a great job with that.

Q. To follow up on that, you got not just Rori but two other Freshmen Players of the Year in their respective conferences, can you speak to the young, emerging talent here in Austin?

VIC SCHAEFER: Yeah, I am fully aware of those kids, as well as their teammates. There's a lot of really good players here. Great teams from great conferences and great coaches. I think you are going to see a really high quality brand of basketball being played here. Every team has got their work cut out for them. I think it's going to be a really good weekend of great basketball. This is a tough region right here, in my opinion. This is a region where there has been some teams with a lot of success. Have beaten a lot of really good teams. You are going to have to play really good to get out of here on Sunday, whoever it is. We are fully aware of that at Texas. Our kids are aware of that.

I love the approach that our kids have of one game at a time. It's how we have been all year. If you've been with me, you could ask me who I'm playing after the next game and I couldn't tell you. I live in that bubble. That's where my kids live too. I don't ever let them look ahead. They know the next game is the most important. That's where the focus needs to be. If we get through that with one, we will get to the next one.

That's kind of where they're at now. I think ask you ask any coach, if you start looking at the top of mountain while you are climbing it, you are going to stumble. You better focus on every little step, and the first step for us right now is Fairfield.

Q. Overall, how much has your schedule prepared you for this? Big 12 is tough, Princeton, Jackson State, Stanford, obviously, how much did your schedule prepare you for this?

VIC SCHAEFER: Our schedule is a nightmare. If you go through your league, 18 conference games, oh by the way, congratulations, you get to play in the conference tournament and going to play three NCAA Tournament teams, and two of them in the top 10. It's a nightmare. That's what's really incredible that these kids have been able to navigate it.

We opened at Stanford earlier in the year. We placed at Princeton, both are NCAA Tournament teams. We went to an A & M team that was ranked in the top 20 at the time. We gave one away at Tennessee. They are a top 4 seed. Jackson state is in the NCAA Tournament. They were really good. I don't think Kim is real fired up about playing them right now, from what I've read.

So I think it's prepared us, no question. I think it's helped this team mature and grow a lot. It made us. You either are going to respond and get better or wilt and fade away. I told the kids that back late in January or February. This is when teams either rise and get better or they fade away. You can look across the country and find a bunch that did both. For us that's what great about this team, they accepted the challenge and went on a run and won 11 straight. That's who this team is. I think if you want to find out who they are, that's who they are, they accepted it. The sky was falling around here when we lost three in a row. It was doom and gloom and oh my gosh, when are you going to win? That came from my own media.

By the way we lost at No. 10 Oklahoma on a last-second shot, then we lose back to back to Baylor within 36 hours. They were top 10 too. It wasn't like we were losing to some three-name directional school. We played two great teams, three great games. So you don't panic, you put your head down, rear ends up and go to work. That's what this team did.

Q. On Rori Harmon, obviously her hustle and effort is extremely undeniable and infectious. What aside from working on her skills has she kind of put or added to her game to make her so successful? Her being an applied movement sciences major, is she taking some tips from strength and conditioning and make sure she is taking care of her body during this time of her young career?

VIC SCHAEFER: I am big on ice baths. There really is no substitute for it. I know you have all kind of apparatuses. You can put your legs in different kinds of cold, whatever they are sleeves, but I'm an old-fashioned guy, but you have to get in an ice bath up to your waist and you stay there eight minutes. She's learned to appreciate that and take care -- all of the kids do that play a lot of minutes, Jo, Audrey play a lot of minutes for us. These kids play really physical. They are tough kids.

I think from a standpoint of taking care of them, I tried during the course of the season, if I had an opportunity to give her a little rest, I've tried to do that but I think the thing that's really elevated her game is just the accountability piece. Early in her career you don't realize at this level, like Audrey was talking about, you are the point guard. You are accountable for everybody. If somebody is in the wrong place and you are running a play and they are in the wrong place, it's not their fault but your fault. You have to get them before you execute and run a play. For her she's learned the most important stat is the W. She's learned I don't like turnovers and get really unhappy when she turns it over, because she's got enough teammates that will turn it over. She doesn't need to be one of them.

When you talk to Audrey she kind of mentioned it but didn't exactly say it, a couple of things that changed the team, she did say this, people got in the gym. After we lost to Baylor the second time, our third in a row, it was evident we needed to fix our shooting woes. We had kids start to show up, getting in the gym, work on their game. You are getting to get out of the game what you put into it. The game won't cheat you. It's real easy. If you don't work on your craft, if you don't work on your game, you're going to get that out of it. The game is really fair. I've said that just like that to them on numerous occasions. I think they embrace that and came to understand, hey, I've got to fix some of my shooting problems.

We were a horrible free-throw shooting team early in the year. We had some kids shooting the ball miserably from the line. We as a team were not good. That became a focal point as well. We are much different today than we were two months ago from the free-throw line.

I think for Rori, just the accountability piece. I have them them fill out a sheet of paper after every game. They write the pros and cons of themselves and of the team. I remember one paper specifically where Rori wrote down, "I know it's all my fault," and she was basically -- she is listening because when you are the point guard, you have to be accountable for everyone. And I think that she's come to really embrace that. And she understands the importance of taking care of the ball, of taking great shots. It's not about shots with me. It's about makes. I think all of them have come to understand, we have got certain players that need the ball in certain areas.

If you really want to talk about a most improved area on our team, it's Lauren Ebo. Lauren was shooting 40% for the longest time. She's now shooting over 65% in the last seven, eight ball games. She's by far our most improved player over this 11-game winning streak. What she's provided for us on both ends, defensively she's guarded some of the best post players in the country, but offensively being an inside presence for us has really changed the dynamic of our team. It has really allowed some of our guards to really flourish. I think she went to work. She changed. Lauren Ebo changed. She changed in a number of ways. It's really impacted our team in a very positive way.

Again, Rori has grown up. She's had to grow up in a hurry, but there is so much more to playing basketball than what you learn in high school. A lot of it has to come with the job. If you don't want the responsibility, you are going to have to move over and play the 2. We have got a lot of 2 guards here that shoot it pretty well. I didn't recruit you to play the 2. You're my point guard. You got to embrace it. You have to want the responsibility. Want the accountability. I want you to be that person that runs my team, and so she's really embraced that.

You got to give her a lot of credit for a young player. These last few ball games playing at a really high level. But again the most important stat for a point guard is the W.