2026-27 Women’s Basketball Thread

[TexTheHorn24]

Extremely excited for the season. I really think this season has a chance to be Vics best coaching job to date at Texas. These freshmen are elite. 

[LonghornFan4Ever]

[HonkEm]

On 9/24/2026 at 8:15 PM, TexTheHorn24 said:

Extremely excited for the season. I really think this season has a chance to be Vics best coaching job to date at Texas. These freshmen are elite. 

The freshmen may be elite. The coach? I'm not sold. If this team exceeds expectations, I suspect the primary reason will be the influx of elite young talent rather than some sudden evolution in Vic's coaching.

Every year I hear about Vic's coaching genius. Every year I end up more impressed by the roster than the coaching.

[Califashorn75]

Coach Vic is a top five coach in women's college basketball. He has been knocking on that championship door for the past ten years.  He has gotten really close, but no cigar yet. We have been relevant since he showed up at Texas. His teams are powerful defenders, play the best, and win their share. Two Final Fours the last two years. He has a bunch of elite eights! The guy is a great coach. Hopefully,  before he retires he can get to the mountain top. 

[HookemTexas]

16 hours ago, HonkEm said:

The freshmen may be elite. The coach? I'm not sold. If this team exceeds expectations, I suspect the primary reason will be the influx of elite young talent rather than some sudden evolution in Vic's coaching.

Every year I hear about Vic's coaching genius. Every year I end up more impressed by the roster than the coaching.

Disagree with you on this one.  Does Coach Vic frustrate me at times?  You bet.  But facts are that since Coach Conradt, Texas hasn’t been relevant in women’s bball until Coach Vic came.  

And Texas had some elite recruits before his time as well - but part of recruiting is on the coach.  Coach Vic has recruited more elite players than Texas has seen in prior years.  Karen Aston would pull maybe 1 or 2 in (Ariel Atkins) and got lucky that Brooke McCarty was good, but she wasn’t elite.

Part of the reason UConn and the other schools win is because they have way more talent than the rest of the league. I argue it’s a lot easier to win when your starting team is composed of the top 50 players in the country. During their Dynasty UConn had the top ranked recruit almost every year.  Now Texas is in the conversation to get those types of players where in previous years they wouldn’t even have a chance.

[HonkEm]

I don't think anyone is arguing that Vic hasn't elevated the program. Texas is unquestionably more relevant now than it was before he arrived, and he deserves credit for that.

Where I differ is in how much of the recent success I attribute to coaching versus talent acquisition. Recruiting absolutely counts as part of coaching, and Vic deserves credit for bringing in elite players. But once those players are on campus, I'm not convinced the on-court coaching consistently maximizes what Texas has.

To me, the last few years have often felt like elite talent overcoming limitations rather than elite coaching elevating talent. That's why when people call Vic a coaching genius, I'm skeptical. I see a program loaded with All-American caliber players, multiple top recruiting classes, and rosters that should be competing for Final Fours. The results have been very good, but not necessarily beyond what the talent level would suggest.

Maybe this freshman class changes my mind. If Texas takes a bigger step than expected, I'll gladly give Vic credit. But my first assumption won't be that a coach in his 60s suddenly became dramatically better. It'll be that adding another wave of elite talent raised the team's ceiling even further.

[HookemTexas]

1 hour ago, HonkEm said:

I don't think anyone is arguing that Vic hasn't elevated the program. Texas is unquestionably more relevant now than it was before he arrived, and he deserves credit for that.

Where I differ is in how much of the recent success I attribute to coaching versus talent acquisition. Recruiting absolutely counts as part of coaching, and Vic deserves credit for bringing in elite players. But once those players are on campus, I'm not convinced the on-court coaching consistently maximizes what Texas has.

To me, the last few years have often felt like elite talent overcoming limitations rather than elite coaching elevating talent. That's why when people call Vic a coaching genius, I'm skeptical. I see a program loaded with All-American caliber players, multiple top recruiting classes, and rosters that should be competing for Final Fours. The results have been very good, but not necessarily beyond what the talent level would suggest.

Maybe this freshman class changes my mind. If Texas takes a bigger step than expected, I'll gladly give Vic credit. But my first assumption won't be that a coach in his 60s suddenly became dramatically better. It'll be that adding another wave of elite talent raised the team's ceiling even further.

That's fair.  Where I would point to as a data point (as we don't know for sure since we're not behind the curtain) would be in Vic's rant after the embarrassing loss to Vandy last year when he was frustrated and said some things out loud.  One of which was - the players not following the game plan and what was drilled in practice in the game.  I can't remember his exact words, but it was something to the effect of - "many hours of work and they just ignored it

It can be argued that part of coaching is getting the players to execute and do what you want them to do.  I do feel like in today's NIL world that seems to be a lot harder than it used to be and many coaches are experiencing that.

[Califashorn75]

He had a few bad apples last year that didn't give 100% on defense. They wanted to.just shoot and that's not his scheme. Vic coaches hard because that is what it takes to win. If Maddy wouldn't have gone cold against UCLA, we would have won the Chip. 

[LonghornFan4Ever]

[DanielOnorato]

Excited for this season! Coach Vic is excellent. He coaches this team well with great structure, unselfishness and elite defensive game plans. 

[Beldar]

On 10/1/2026 at 3:33 PM, HonkEm said:

The freshmen may be elite. The coach? I'm not sold. If this team exceeds expectations, I suspect the primary reason will be the influx of elite young talent rather than some sudden evolution in Vic's coaching.

Every year I hear about Vic's coaching genius. Every year I end up more impressed by the roster than the coaching.

Clueless.

 

[Califashorn75]

Fans who don't follow women's basketball are blind to the obvious. The growth and popularity of the sport has exploded in the past five years and its trajectory is like a rocket ship. Just look at the value of the Valkyries. Talk about a return on investment. 

These girls nowadays all are working toward similar goals: name and brand recognition, improve their game, play in high powered, nationally televised games, and ultimately play in the WNBA. Booker will be a top three draft pick and will have a huge fan base that will follow her to whomever drafts her! 

Coach Vic hit the jackpot with his five freshman. These girls are different.  

[LonghornFan4Ever]

 

[GQ03]

1 hour ago, Califashorn75 said:

Fans who don't follow women's basketball are blind to the obvious. The growth and popularity of the sport has exploded in the past five years and its trajectory is like a rocket ship. Just look at the value of the Valkyries. Talk about a return on investment. 

These girls nowadays all are working toward similar goals: name and brand recognition, improve their game, play in high powered, nationally televised games, and ultimately play in the WNBA. Booker will be a top three draft pick and will have a huge fan base that will follow her to whomever drafts her! 

Coach Vic hit the jackpot with his five freshman. These girls are different.  

No one is saying they aren't talented but what they don't have is experience and the issue Vic's coaching presents is that by the time they get the experience, they transfer out.

[WRNC]

 

[Califashorn75]

Let's go girls! 

[Sarah O]

 

[LonghornFan4Ever]

Going to be some growing pains this season.  This will be a rebuilding season.  This team is so talented but so young…

[GoHorns1]

On 10/16/2026 at 7:32 PM, DanielOnorato said:

Excited for this season! Coach Vic is excellent. He coaches this team well with great structure, unselfishness and elite defensive game plans. 

Natty are won with offense not defense in today’s basketball 

[ChanmanV]

Not a bad start of the season. We played Texas ball for 1 half but the 2nd half was a bit a mess. UConn's defense is legit but our young players were making a lot of defensive mistakes in the 2nd half. We also need to figure out who our playmakers are outside of Booker. Someone that can create good shots for others. Preston was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for more from her but she looked more like the same Preston from last year. Vic should push Clark to be a playmaker. She's got the fluidity to get by people and not just create her own shot. Vann also needs to create more. 

Cunningham looks in elite shape right now. We need her to play big minutes this year. 

[BabyBevo]

15 minutes ago, GoHorns1 said:

Natty are won with offense not defense in today’s basketball 

Not in Women’s. 

[mymy32]

First exhibition game for Texas, second for UConn. 

Vic had freshmen Bjorn, Etute, and Crittendon guarding Strong. Welcome to college, ladies.

As I said on IT, if a team isn't going to take a lot of 3s, they better not let the other team take a lot. But a lot of UConn's 3s came on defensive breakdowns from Texas. Not all, but quite a few. That being said, it wasn't unexpected to have those breakdowns with all the new and young players still getting their sea legs.

Also, Texas needs to take more 3s. At least a few more. 

Book looks better than ever. Need more from Bry. And not a good sign to have Breya already dealing with foul trouble. Lizzie did well in her minutes, I thought, especially being a true frosh running pg for Vic, at UConn, in her first playing time. 

We need a few players to step up on offense. Not gonna take too much negative from today on that front, given the context. I'm sure players like Bjorn, Crittendon, Etute, and Clark will all settle in as they adjust to the speed of the game and more shots will fall. Hopefully the same for Vann as she gets more familiar with the offense. 

Lots for Vic to take from this game. Will be really interesting to see how they adjust over the preseason and into non-conference play. They have insane talent. It's up to Vic to get everyone not named Booker (who is already there) to tap into it more consistently. 

[Califashorn75]

I think Bjorn can be that reliable outside shooter. She is tall and can get her shot off. She just needs to get used to the offense and find her niche. Breya has more post up moves but she needs to he careful trying to block everything.  She is prone to fouling. This team has loads of talent. Just so young. 

[Bevohorns]

Was not impressed at all. The team still lacks shooting and the pg and center position look rough.