No. 25 Texas prepares for trip to Waco and leave its Big 12 road woes behind

During his press conference Friday, Texas women's basketball coach Vic Schaefer guaranteed a victory.

Now, it wasn't exactly the equivalent of Joe Namath calling his shot against the Colts. Schaefer wasn't even talking about an upcoming game.

He was referencing a Longhorns practice that was set to begin in a few minutes. The team had taken Thursday off, so this was going to be its first time together since Wednesday night's 68-64 loss at Texas Tech. Schaefer said he was looking forward to seeing how everyone responded in the aftermath of that letdown in Lubbock.

"I'm going to win practice," Schaefer claimed. "I tell them all the time: I'm going to win practice every day. I'm going to be the best player out there, the best person in the gym; I'm going to win practice. That's my job as a coach, I've got to win practice every day."

Wins in practices are nice, yes. But losses in games matter more in the grand scheme of things. Since Texas Tech is currently No. 65 in the NET rankings, Wednesday's loss was arguably the worst of Texas' season. It also reflected a troubling trend for the Longhorns: they're just 2-3 in true road games. Texas (13-6, 4-2 Big 12) last finished a season with a losing record on the road in 2015.

In conference play, Texas has hosted three Big 12 foes at Moody Center. The Longhorns are 3-0 in those games with two wins coming at the expense of ranked Kansas and Iowa State teams. But on the road, the Longhorns have dropped games at Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. Texas also struggled to distance itself from TCU during an 81-69 win in Fort Worth earlier this month.

UT has scored 227 points in those three home wins and 227 points in those three road games but is shooting a couple of percentage points better in Austin. The Longhorns are actually averaging fewer turnovers on the road.

But defensively, there has been a huge difference in UT's home-road splits. Kansas State, Iowa State and Kansas averaged 51 points in their appearances at Moody. Texas surrendered 74.3 points per game over those trips to TCU, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

In an 86-82 decision Jan. 7, Oklahoma State became just the sixth team to score at least 80 points against Texas since Schaefer took over ahead of the 2020-21 season. Veteran Texas Tech guard Bre'Amber Scott later joined UConn's Azzi Fudd as the only players to score more than 25 points against Texas this season.

"I think what's most disappointing is defensively, both Oklahoma State and at Tech, we were just awful," Schaefer said. "No focus, didn't play hard. Wednesday night, we didn't play hard at all, and it was really disheartening."

While speaking about his team's problems on the road, Schaefer added that Texas had a chance to beat both Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. In the final minute of both losses, the Longhorns had the basketball with a chance to tie the game.

"Whether it's on the road or at home, we know what this team can do," UT guard Shay Holle said. "We need to carry our preparation into the game. There has to be more carryover and a better translation because we're getting the right preparation, we're getting a good scout, so it's really our job to put that on the floor. Our coaches can coach us, but at the end of the day, we're the ones playing, and we need to be responsible for that."

Texas faces another road test Sunday in Waco. This will be the first meeting between Texas and Baylor since the Longhorns knocked the Bears out in the 2022 Big 12 championship game.

This season, Baylor has won 13 of its 18 games. Like the Longhorns, coach Nicki Collen's Bears are 4-2 in Big 12 play.

"Just have a lot of respect for how they play the game and how Nicki's handling them right now and coaching them," Schaefer said. "They play extremely hard; guard play's outstanding. (Caitlin) Bickle inside is, whoo, she's one of the more impressive, got to be one of the toughest post players in the country."

On Monday, Baylor dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time since January 2004. The Longhorns have also had their ups and downs with that poll this season.

After opening as the preseason No. 3 team, Texas split its first eight games and was then unranked for six straight weeks. Texas returned to the rankings last week, but that loss to Texas Tech will probably cost the Longhorns their No. 25 ranking.

"I'm pretty sure we all got humbled when we had a pretty rough start," Texas point guard Rori Harmon said recently. "We got to understand we're a good basketball team, but we're not as big and bad as we think we are. We still have things to work out. We still have games to win."

Sunday's game

Texas (13-6, 4-2) at Baylor (13-5, 4-2), 4 p.m., ESPN2, 105.3

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas, Baylor women renew basketball rivalry in Waco