Harmon’s return set off Horns’ run to title
AUSTIN — Texas looked rudderless without its point guard.
To be fair, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The competition was pretty stiff, too, with a set of early games against No. 5 Uconn, Marquette and No. 6 Louisville pushing undermanned Texas to its limits.
Still, it quickly became apparent that the No. 3 team in the preseason Associated Press women’s basketball poll lost some of its personality and plenty of its punch with sophomore Rori Harmon sidelined for the Longhorns’ first five games due to a foot injury.
But life’s been pretty grand for No. 12 Texas (22-8, 13-4 Big 12) since Harmon made her season debut Nov. 27 in a 24-point win over Princeton. The Longhorns have won 20 of 25 since their star point guard returned, and they enter this weekend tied for first place in the Big 12 with No. 16 Oklahoma.
Texas will clinch at least a share of the Big 12 title with a win at ninth-place Kansas State in Saturday’s regular-season finale at Bramlage Coliseum, something this program hasn’t done since then-coach Jody Conradt guided the team
to consecutive championships in 2003 and 2004. A win over the Wildcats would also give Texas the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City.
“There’s one other player in the country doing what she’s doing — points, assists, steals — and that’s (Iowa All-american) Caitlin Clark,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said of Harmon’s impact. “Well, we know everybody’s singing her praises. Nobody else does what Rori Harmon does in
the country, including Caitlin Clark. Nobody picks up full-court place, plays pressure defense man-to-man. Rori’s a great help defender, too. How many times has she been trucked, run over in a ball game. I mean, the kid’s tougher than nails.”
Harmon leads the Big 12 in minutes (38.4) and assists (7.1) per game and is tied for second in steals (2.1). She also owns a league-best 2.3 assist-toturnover ratio. And nationally, only Harmon,
Clark, Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles and Iowa State’s Emily Ryan are averaging at least 10 points, six assists and five rebounds this season.
Without Harmon, Texas would have been a good, plucky outfit that would’ve settled in somewhere around the middle of the Big 12. The 5-foot-6 dynamo out of Houston Cypress Creek transforms Texas into a title-caliber group both with her play and her mentality.
That’s why Schaefer believes Harmon should join former Texas star Brooke Mccarty-williams as the program’s second recipient of the Big 12 player of the year award, especially if she can deliver a title-winning performance Saturday afternoon.
“I get it, there’s kids that score and all that,” Schaefer said. “But they don’t they do what she does totally on both ends of the floor. And then it’s, you know, how do you impact your teammates? That’s the piece that I think so much gets lost. You can’t take that away.
“People of impact have a three-word job: Make others better. I think Rori Harmon makes everybody better. Again, there are certain players in our league that score a lot of points for their team; they’re not making others better. Rori Harmon makes others better and she does it on both ends of the floor.”
While Harmon’s been transformative, she’s not even close to a finished product.
Her shot needs a lot of work. Harmon’s shooting 39 percent from the field and 16.3 percent from 3 this year. And with a chance to clinch a share of the Big 12 title earlier this week, Harmon shot 5-of-18 in a frustrating 63-54 loss to Baylor at the Moody Center.
But Texas was also in that position because of the stellar performance Harmon had a couple days earlier in a first-place battle against Oklahoma. That afternoon in Norman, she finished with 14 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and two steals in a 67-45 rout.
And while the letdown against Baylor stung, Schaefer can’t imagine Harmon letting this golden opportunity slip away Saturday against Kansas State.
“They haven’t won a conference championship here at the University of Texas, of all places, in 20 years,” Schaefer said. “That’s hard to fathom. So these kids have put themselves in a great position. And again, I’m not trying to take anything away from anybody else. I’m just telling you nobody does what Rori Harmon does, plays with the energy she plays with.”