Newcoach forges Houston ties
AUSTIN — Vic Schaefer swears there wasn’t any caffeine coursing through his system during Wednesday’s Zoom conference call.
The Texas coach’s energy flowed not from coffee, but from finalizing a 2021 recruiting class ranked No. 4 nationally in the espn W Hoop Gurlz team rankings. Not a bad pick-me-up.
“This is all natural, buddy,” Schaefer said, his twangy voice erupting from the screen. “Ain’t no coffee involved.”
Two members of this three-woman signing class are Houstonians; five-star forward Aaliyah Moore is an Oklahoman. Cypress Creek guards Rori Harmon and Kyndall Hunter are also two of espn W’s top six point guards, and they might become the Longhorns’ backcourt foundation for the foreseeable future.
“I look at Rory and Kyndall like twins,” Schaefer explained. “I mean, I’ve coached twins before, twins from Duncanville a long time ago at Sam Houston State; Amy and Andy. And they just had this telepathy going and I look at those two, and I see that for us here at Texas.”
Schaefer owns lifelong ties to both Austin — birthed at Brackenridge Hospital in 1961 — and Houston, his childhood home. So these recruiting forays into the state’s largest city are nothing new for the Texas A&M graduate who broke into the field as an assistant boys basketball coach at Milby High School in 1985.
Undeterred by a pandemic that transformed the mechanisms of recruiting, the program’s new steward and his staff have already established a foothold in the Houston recruiting scene. Family dinners and nights on the couch have been exchanged for hours of Zoom chats with prospective targets, and that early infiltration into a bas--
ketball-crazed city has Schaefer excited for what the future holds.
“We’ve got to keep the best players in our state at Texas, period,” Schaefer said. “We’re at the University of Texas, y’all. We need the best players in this state to be here and to play here. And, we not only have to fight the in-state schools, everybody and their dog comes from out of state to recruit this state.
“When we go home at
night, we don’t go home and have dinner and drink a glass of iced tea and find out what’s on at eight o’clock. What’s on at eight o’clock is Zooms. It’s getting to know families. It’s getting to know people personally. That’s what’s on our plate every night.”
The twin-like psychic connection Schaefer alluded to between Harmon and Hunter might sound like the electrified musings of a coach high on life. But the duo’s dominance at Cypress Creek has been undeniable, and the belief is that dominance will continue when they don burnt orange in 2021.
Harmon and Hunter steered the Cougars to a 41-1 record last season and a runner-up finish in the Class 6A state tournament. The former claimed District 17-6A Most Valuable Player honors; the Chronicle named the latter its All-Greater Houston girls basketball player of the year.
During that near-perfect 2019-20 campaign, the sub-5-foot-8 guards combined to average 35.6 points, 7.5 assists and 7.0 steals per game. Everything about their skill sets should mesh well at Texas, where Schaefer plans to install the same aggressive full-court press style that helped transform Mississippi State into a national power.
“I mean, Kyndall and Rori, that’s the best backcourt in the country,” Schaefer said. “Those kids, if you look at their stats, they just jump out at you. Andin how many wins they’ve had in their careers.
“The biggest thing that nobody knows is, they play exactly like we play from a standpoint of they press for the entire game. So they’re going to really have an easy transition coming to Texas because they’ve been doing it all their career.”
Harmon had been the top 2021 point guard prospect on Schaefer’s list for the past two years. That, naturally, led to the fascination with and eventual courting of Hunter. It was the best package deal Schaefer could’ve hoped for during his first early signing period at Texas.
But the work, both in Houston and around the country, isn’t finished.
“I can’t go into it, but y’all hang in there,” Schaefer said, “because I don’t think we’re done.”