PHOENIX — There are a lot of things one might say about Texas guard Rori Harmon. That much was clear as Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer led Harmon, Kyla Oldacre and Madison Booker in to speak to reporters on Friday night, after Texas suffered a 51-44 loss to UCLA in the Final Four.
Schaefer, known for his sometimes intense behavior in press conferences, was initially reticent. After congratulating UCLA, he hit the dozens of reporters packed in tight rows lining the room with a zinger.
“I think we feel like, in our locker room, we let one get away,” he said of the game. “I think this one will haunt me, as the coach, for probably until the day I die.”
Schaefer later found his voice and launched into the kind of tirade that one becomes accustomed to — even fond of — over the course of a college season. He’s brash and passionate, always ready to defend his team even as he simultaneously denigrates it.
But on this Friday night, Schaefer clearly had one player at the front and center of his mind and heart: Harmon.
His point guard, who spent all five seasons of her collegiate career in Austin, spent that time doing things no one else has ever done, Schaefer insisted. “I want you guys to understand something,” he implored, his voice rising as he began to find a rhythm. “I want everybody in the room to write this down. This is a crying shame.”
“So you hear me good,” Schaefer continued, now confident in his mission. “Rori Harmon has scored 1,616 points, 977 assists, 659 rebounds and 388 steals. Not one agency has ever voted her All-American. There’s not another player in the history of our game — you hear me, not another player in the history of our game — that has had those stats, those four statistics. Not one. She’s won 137 games.
“You might as well get rid of whatever awards you got if she ain’t good enough to get one of ’em.”
How Harmon led the Longhorns
To say recruiting Harmon to Texas was a boon for the program is an understatement. She was a four-star recruit in 2020, pursued by then-Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey and others. At 5’6, Harmon has always had to prove herself to detractors, but that has never been a problem.
Schaefer told reporters he remembers “everything” about Harmon back then. He started recruiting her when she was in ninth grade and he was coaching at Mississippi State, and he would fly to Houston to recruit her. He’d had experience with guards like her with Jazzmun Holmes and Morgan William. They were “fast, electric [and] quick”; played defense; and “could really set the tempo in transition.”
Harmon’s decision to join the Longhorns was a fast one. With Schaefer and associate head coach Elena Lovato at Mississippi State, she told the “Good Game with Sarah Spain” podcast last month, “it just felt right.” That feeling intensified when Schaefer got hired at Texas, and the pair began building “this great, winning, elite program together.”
The duo has been comrades in arms in pursuit of elevating women’s college basketball and building a championship program at Texas. But Harmon and Schaefer have also developed a relationship that seems something like father-daughter and something like friends.
“When somebody like Vic Schaefer talks about you like that in that manner, speaks about how tough you play, how much I impact a basketball team and a program, it really does [mean] a lot from the bottom of my heart,” Harmon tearfully told reporters following Schaefer’s comments about her.
“A lot of the stuff I did this season — obviously, you think about your career, your university, you do it for your teammates and everything, but I’ve been here for five years with Coach Schaefer,” she continued. “I really wanted to do it for him. It stings a lot, but I’m just super grateful to have been put in this position, to have started the foundation with him at this university and this program.”
Schafer had no reason to believe the Harmon he met as a ninth grader wouldn’t be anything other than the player she is today. That player emerged as a quiet but steady leader for the team. That wasn’t always something that came naturally to her, she told The IX Sports in October, but it’s certainly something she grew into.
Her teammate and fellow senior Kyla Oldacre told reporters Friday that Harmon “is one of the greatest teammates I’ve ever played with.” That’s not lip service; Oldacre’s sincerity was etched into her face. “From the first day I showed up on campus, from my first-ever workout, she was the main one keeping me positive and encouraging me, even though I felt like it wasn’t my best day and the workout wasn’t going great. She kept lifting me up, encouraging me.”
Even as Schaefer was explaining what went wrong and why, Harmon noted the team only had 12 turnovers. Against any team, that number isn’t anything to be disappointed in, but against an elite team like UCLA, it’s impressive.
Minutes later, she interjected as Booker attempted to answer another question about what went wrong on Friday.
“You got to realize, she’s human. She’s a basketball player. We want her to take those shots. There is another player on the other team that is 6’7,” Harmon said, referring to UCLA’s Lauren Betts. “All eyes go to Madison Booker. Obviously, UCLA, they got their win tonight. I truly told Maddy, ‘I don’t care. I don’t care what your statistics look like.’ There was plenty of other things that caused us to lose the game, not just because Madison missed her money midrange.”
The team will “continue to go back to her,” Harmon added. “We’ll continue to look for her. We’ll continue to tell her to take her shot. So she’s going to sit here and be like, ‘This is on me.’ No. It’s not. It’s just not, so … please give her a break.”
Harmon, who may have forgotten in the moment that she may not ever have another opportunity to look for Booker on the court, then politely added, “Thank you.”
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‘It’s not pressure; it’s opportunity’
Like a lot of players, Harmon has faced plenty of adversity and low moments, including a torn ACL in December 2023. That season-ending injury got her another year with Texas, which meant another opportunity, but it came at a price.
It was difficult to immediately know what to do or what she should hope for, Harmon explained back in October. But over time, her confidence returned. The Longhorns made the Final Four in 2024-25 in large part due to Harmon’s ability to rise above.
Harmon told reporters in Phoenix that broadcaster Debbie Antonelli once gave her advice she still holds on to: “It’s not pressure; it’s opportunity.”
When it was time to battle back to a mental state that would help her team win, Harmon drew on Antonelli’s words.
“I kind of took it like that,” she said. “This is the role I’ve had for quite some time. Obviously, it’s been very difficult and challenging, but just throughout the course of my years, this team especially, they made me feel like I didn’t have to carry the load all the time.”
Harmon’s presence will be missed, Booker said through a fresh wave of tears. “That’s my sister,” she said. Harmon’s injury meant Booker’s first season “didn’t go as planned,” but her ability to fight back was inspiring.
“I’ve learned so much from her,” Booker said. “Impact on and off the court. Our relationship we built, there’s not many words to describe it. I mean, I will always root for Rori no matter what.”
What’s ahead for Harmon
The chance to keep rooting for Harmon on a basketball court could come soon enough. The WNBA Draft is on April 13, and if Schaefer was calling the shots, she’d be “the first one I’d go get,” he said. “She can run your team.”
That WNBA team will need to be the right fit, he added, “because if you’re going to ask her to play zone or back off and play positional, man, that ain’t it for her. Her body will go into shock. But if you want somebody that’s going to set the tone, is going to bring it every day — ‘[I] don’t care if you’re a 12-year vet or a rookie, I’m going to guard your ass’ — you go get her, because she’s good.”
Former Texas head coach Jody Conradt, who won 900 games over 38 years with the program, didn’t seem worried about Harmon’s future on Friday, either.
“I think she’s a unique player and really an outstanding woman,” she told The IX Sports after the game. “She went through a very difficult time with an injury, and a lot of players don’t have the ability to fight through that and come back.”
Harmon, she added, not only did that, but she came back “better than she was before the injury. And I think that says everything about her work ethic and her commitment to the game. She loves this game.”
“She lives for playing the game,” Conradt clarified. “And her competitive spirit is really extraordinary.”
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A common thread for the Longhorns
The Longhorns’ season ended in a way that will sting for quite some time, but no one involved has reached the end of the road. In addition to Harmon and Oldacre, the team will also graduate Sarah Graves, Ashton Judd and Teya Sidberry. Their paths will splinter and separate, but a common thread will keep them woven together: Texas basketball.
Harmon didn’t get the end she wanted on Friday, but in every other way that counts, she got everything she needed from the Longhorns. She gave it back in spades, too. It’s a two-way gift that can’t really be quantified and, if the team’s response to its last game together was any indication, can only be felt.
In a sport where so much plays out in the open on the hardwood, the strongest work is sometimes the quietest. It’s what happens behind the scenes. For Harmon, that’s something that may ultimately be even more special than any trophy or title could be.
Looking for more March Madness stories? Read all our NCAA Tournament coverage at The IX Sports.