No. 5 Longhorns looking to make it 8 consecutive wins Saturday vs. last-place UCF
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Coming off a lackluster performance Wednesday that still produced a win over Texas Tech, Texas Longhorns women’s basketball head coach Vic Schaefer said it was a great sign for the road ahead.
Championship teams win when they don’t play their best — it has been proven across not only basketball but sports as a whole. The Longhorns notched their 25th win of the season and stayed in the Big 12 regular season title hunt with a bit of a clunker, especially on the defensive end. However, Schaefer put the game in perspective when he met with media members Thursday and said he has no choice but to move on to Saturday’s game in Orlando against Central Florida.
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“You’re glad you got the lesson with a win, and at the same time, I could tell in the locker room that those kids knew they weren’t very good and they need to fix it,” he said. “The season is such a long, hard grind. No other sport covers both semesters like ours. You start the first day of class with conditioning, and you end if you’re doing your job in April.”
In the end, a win is still a win and the Longhorns are tied for second in the conference at 12-3 with Kansas State, both a game behind Oklahoma at 13-2. Texas has won seven consecutive games and on paper should make it eight against the worst team in the conference, but we all know that famous sports cliche about where games aren’t played.
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Central Florida is 12-13 overall but has had a tough go at it in conference play at 3-12. They’ve beaten Texas Tech on the road and Iowa State at home, and while those wins can raise collective eyebrows a bit, they’ve lost their last three games by a combined 13 points. Schaefer said UCF isn’t a typical team that’s struggling to win.
“They’re really good and athletic and have been in quite a few close games,” he said. “For whatever reason, sometimes they haven’t ended up on the side they wanted to. When you go on the road, life can always be challenging, so we’ve got to go play well.”
It’s an early game with an 11 a.m. CT tip, and that alone has the potential to create some problems.
“I don’t anyone on the team wants to get up at 5 a.m. for a shootaround, so you don’t get that when you’re on the road with an early game,” he said. “A road game in the Big 12 is never easy.”
During his days coaching the Southeastern Conference with Mississippi State, Schaefer said he had early road games before so he generally has an idea of how to do navigate the condensed schedule. He said he’ll have his team on the floor by 10:15 a.m. local time to shoot and then prepare to take on the Knights.
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