Lindsey Plotkin
After beating Missouri but not playing to their highest standard, Harmon emphasized the importance of bringing the intensity for the full 40 minutes. She immediately started off the game how she wanted, opening the scoring with a mid-range jumper as the opening shot clock expired. She would go on to finish the game with 15 points and five assists. She was 7-9 from the floor and had just one turnover in the game.
While some may get caught up in the rivalry, Booker and Harmon just wanted to focus on one thing, winning. Head coach Vic Schaefer went to Texas A&M and coached for the Aggies, winning a national championship on staff with assistant coach Sydney Carter in 2011.
“We know what it means the history, I think it was preached to us every day since we were trying to prepare for them,” Harmon said. “We understand the historical context of this, but yeah, we did come out punching and I’m so happy about that because I feel like sometimes lately we haven’t been but we should attack every game like it’s the same in a way, and just be ready to play.”
Though Harmon has experienced the rivalry, playing in College Station in 2021, Booker is a complete stranger to it. Growing up in Mississippi, her only knowledge of the rivalry comes from Schaefer, Carter and her teammates at Texas.
Despite this, she wants to play her best every game, and in the win had a career-high in rebounds. When Texas A&M started to outplay Texas and as Schaefer would say, “out-toughed” Booker kept her intensity and focus, keeping her team on track.
“I think we won more of the little battles, like coach would say more than the other team did,” Booker said. “So I think that kind of helped us in the long run.”
Schaefer noted how solid Harmon and Booker are as a duo, as Booker had to play the point guard with Harmon out last season. Last season, Harmon was known as “Coach Rori” by her teammates and now Schaefer says that both are like coaches on the floor. While Harmon was out, Booker was thrown into the point guard position, and as a freshman excelled. Now, she uses that experience to her advantage while Schaefer utilizes the stellar play of the pair to run his team.
“Well (we’ve) got two point guards out there, you know, and they’re making the right reads,” Schaefer said. “And, you know, they’re an extension. Obviously, they’re two coaches on the floor, and they know what we want to do and how we want to do it.”
Now, the trio of coaches will return to Austin with the rest of the Longhorns for a stacked remainder of an SEC schedule. In the next two weeks, the Longhorns will face four straight-ranked opponents, including two top-10 opponents in No. 2 South Carolina and No. 7 LSU.
Next, Texas will face No. 24 Vanderbilt on Thursday at the Moody Center. Commodore freshman Mikayla Blakes set an NCAA record, scoring 53 points in the team’s win against Florida. After that, the Longhorns will host the Gamecocks and then travel to No. 12 Kentucky, whose senior Georgia Amoore scored 43 points. Texas will then host the Tigers for coach Kim Mulkey’s return to Austin.