"You've got to play against the best": Texas' Rori Harmon on what she's looking forward to facing Dawn Staley's Gamecocks

No. 5 Texas Longhorns played a high-profile game against No. 2 South Carolina on Sunday. Before the match-up, Players Tribune shared an interview with Longhorns' Rori Harmon on Instagram.

When asked about the game against the Gamecocks and what she was most looking forward to, Harmon said:

“Truthfully, to be the best you’ve got to play the best, so I’m really excited for South Carolina. I'm just excited for the atmosphere of the fans, best players against best players, I think that's going to be super fun. coach Vic versus coach Dawn, I just think that’ll be really fun. I'm excited.

"Games like that are so fun when there's like this team pressing, someone's getting ball pressure. We have people who can go one-on-one all down the roster, stuff like that. This is something that every team, every player wants to do. These are the type of games that people want to watch too."

Rori Harmon, along with the Texas Longhorns players, endured shooting troubles in the 67-50 loss to South Carolina. The guard finished with nine points, two assists and two steals, while her team shot one of the worst, 27.8% from the floor and 20.0% from the 3-point range.

"They're just very well-coached and a great team. They're No. 2 for a reason," Harmon said after the defeat.

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Texas coach Vic Schaefer rips into his team's performance

After a nine-game winning streak, Texas recorded its second loss of the 2024-25 season. Their first was an 80-70 defeat to Notre Dame in December.

In the post-game press conference, Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer spoke about his team:

"Ain't nobody going to feel sorry for us. We've got to fix some things. We've been doing it, but today was not our day.

"We talk about doing your job and being the thermostat and not the thermometer," Schaefer added. "We wanted to be the thermostat today, but we ended up being the thermometer. They set the (temperature)."

Sunday's offense was the third worst of the Schaefer era, after the 23.0% against South Carolina and 24.6% against Baylor in 2021.

"We had 28 more shots, we had 14 more offensive rebounds, we forced 22 turnovers, and we got beat (by) 17, Schaefer said.

"You can raise your hand if you've ever covered a team that had those stats because I don't think anybody's ever covered that, men or women. What I just said, it's crazy."

Texas has some time to recover from the loss, as it plays against Auburn on Thursday.