Texas Longhorns' Vic Schaefer Reflects on Legacy Left By Legendary Coach

AUSTIN -- The No. 7 Texas Longhorns will face the No. 17 Tennessee Volunteers on Thursday at the Moody Center, renewing a women's basketball rivalry that was made famous by two legendary coaches. Jody Conradt and Pat Summitt often shared the court as opponents and friends and this game is Texas' "We Back Pat" game, honoring the late coach who passed away in 2016.

Conradt and Summitt were both Hall of Fame Coaches, but they wanted their impact to be greater than that. Before women's sports were popular, they tackled a seemingly impossible task, breaking the world record of hosting the highest-attended women's sports event. And in 1987, they did just that.

As both teams are now part of the SEC, the Texas and Tennessee rivalry has been renewed, this time with conference implications. For years, it was played as a non-conference game until complications with COVID-19 forced the rivalry to be paused.

Now, Tennessee will come to Austin for the team's first meeting as conference opponents. While much of the history of the rivalry remains the same and Texas head coach Vic Schaefer took the time to reflect on his time learning from Pat Summitt.

Texas Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer yells instructions from the sideline during the game against Arkansas at the Moody Center on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025. | Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"When I was a young coach, a young assistant, and I saw those teams that Coach Summit had, I always said, I want my team to look like her team," Schaefer said. "I want my team to play like her team. When they got off the bus, they looked like a national champion. They looked like an SEC champion. You can't be an SEC champion if you don't look like it getting off the bus."

Schaefer had previous coaching experience in the SEC before getting to Texas and even before he was with the Longhorns would try to use the lessons he learned from Summitt and her staff, sometimes getting himself in trouble. At the Big 12 Conference Tournament, opposing coaches were not fond of his scouting tactics, something he adopted from one of Summitt's assistants.

Al Brown would famously scout teams in the SEC tournaments by sitting on press row and watching practices. As a young coach, Schaefer knew the excellence that Summitt brought everywhere she went and he adopted Brown's strategy for scouting. In the SEC tournament, everyone was accustomed to coaches scouting this way, but in the Big 12, coaches were not fans.

At the Big 12 Tournaments, Schaefer would do his scouting from the stands instead, but still kept the same lessons he learned from Summitt and her staff.

"That's how you learn if you're paying attention. It's what you learn in this game. And I'm always paying attention. I'm always watching other people," Schaefer said. "I learned that watching her team, watching how hard they played, how they rebounded the basketball. Yeah, they defended, played hard, but they were going to beat your butt on the boards. And my team still don't, aren't quite as good rebounding as I'd like them to be, but it didn't because I'm not trying to get them there, and I've learned that from her, you know, understanding that was her philosophy."

He recalled one time at Arkansas that his Razorbacks were up on Summitt's Volunteers at halftime. After the break, Tennessee came out on a 32-4 run and won the game. That's just how her teams were, elite even when they weren't playing their best.

"You know, I wish I had a fun story, but I just don't have one," Schaefer said. "Usually when you played her teams it usually didn't end very fun."

Schaefer and many coaches still try to model their game after Summitt as she is widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the history of women's basketball. Though she passed from early-onset Alzheimer's that forced her to retire, her legend lives on through women's basketball.

The game will be televised nationally on ESPN at 7 P.M. on Thursday as the top-20 matchup will be a great one, no matter the outcome.

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