As it waits for its new home and identity, Texas starts prepping for basketball season

Count Texas point guard Rori Harmon among the thousands of people who flocked to the recent series of Harry Styles concerts at Moody Center.

Yes, she said the concert was amazing. But what Harmon was still talking about Tuesday was the noise inside the new on-campus venue.

"It was so loud," Harmon said. "There was ringing in my ear walking outside the concert, but it was amazing."

Harmon was speaking to reporters just a few days away — 26 or 38 depending on whether you count exhibition games — from being on the center stage herself at Moody. Texas will host a charity game against DePaul on Oct. 30 to benefit the Uvalde CISD's Moving Forward Foundation. The Longhorns' actual Moody Center debut is set for Nov. 11 against Louisiana.

Harmon said Tuesday that not many of her teammates have gotten an up-close look at Moody Center yet. She thinks Longhorns guard Shay Holle had been there. Maybe some of the incoming transfers and freshmen got tours when they were being recruited.

But for now, the Longhorns are waiting to move in. In fact, they practiced at the Erwin Center on Tuesday.

Texas coach Vic Schaefer has been told that he'll get to work in his new office next week. Access to the team's new practice facility will soon follow. He said that he and men's coach Chris Beard are actually hoping that the Erwin Center isn't razed in the immediate future because they want another option for practices if Moody is otherwise booked.

"When we go on the road and play all these different places, you need to be in that arena setting practicing if that makes sense," Schaefer said. "For us, if we can't get in the Moody, we're hoping that the Drum will still be here ... because shooting the basketball is really important and we want it to be as game-like as we can get."

When Texas does make its Moody Center debut, it will do so with seven newcomers and three new assistant coaches. The team, which began practicing this week, is still searching for its identity, Schaefer said.

Over the past two seasons, Texas fans have gotten used to seeing the Longhorns play an aggressive style of defense. As Schaefer often says, "we don't stand around playing hope-you-miss defense in a 2-3 zone."

But this offseason, Texas added two prolific scorers in former BYU guard Shaylee Gonzales and ex-DePaul standout Sonya Morris. Both rank among the top-10 career scorers at their former schools. Last season Gonzales averaged 18.3 points per game while Morris averaged 17.5.

Last season, Texas was No. 44 nationally in scoring. No Longhorn averaged more than 12 points.

"We're jelling already and we've only been playing with each other for a couple weeks," Harmon said of her new teammates. "I'm excited for getting those assists and them racking up those points."

Last week, Schaefer was asked if the additions of Gonzales and Morris signaled a switch in his philosophies. He wouldn't commit to an offense-first approach and said UT would still lean on its defense.

"I don't care how we win. We can win 100-98 or we can win 50-48, I don't care," he said. "I think that's where I'm searching right now is what is the identity of this team. You know, what's it going to be? I think I have a real smart team. I think I've got some kids that really know the game and understand the game.

"We're gonna find our identity, but defense is always going to be part of the equation at Texas."

Last season, Texas was No. 13 nationally in turnovers forced per game. And the Longhorns allowed just 56.8 points per game, which was the Big 12's best mark. Texas closed out the season with a 59-50 loss to Stanford in the Elite Eight. In the leadup to that game, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer seemed to take a swipe at UT's style of play when she said "I believe people want to watch basketball and not football or rugby."

Former UT associate head coach Dionnah Jackson-Durrett quickly rebuked VanDerveer's comment. Jackson-Durrett, who is now the head coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, tweeted that "We get enough criticism from outside of WBB, I expect better from our sport. To imply that our team plays 'football or rugby' is an ugly narrative. As if WBB players are not capable of being physical and tough."

Schaefer said last week that he was not made aware of VanDerveer's comments until after the season ended. He has not spoken with VanDerveer, but he expressed his disappointment with the words spoken by his sport's all-time winningest coach.

"We play with the same rules as everybody else," Schaefer said. "The fact that our kids play hard shouldn't be a penalty. Basketball is not a noncontact finesse game. There's contact in our game and it's legal. We try to play the game legally. So, again, I didn't like the inference. I don't think it's fair and I don't think it's proper. We'll leave it at that."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women's basketball begins prepping for upcoming season