Vic Schaefer went all out in his criticism of his team’s performance in its loss to No. 5 Vanderbilt on Thursday night. No. 4 Texas lost 86-70 to the Commodores in Nashville, trailing behind by as many as 27 points at some point in the game.
In his postgame press conference, Schaefer criticized his team’s mindset, declaring that his players “had no heart.”
“Quite frankly, we had no heart,” he said. “You wanna ask me what does it take to win at this level? What’s it gonna take for my team? You gotta have heart. We got no heart.”
Thursday’s loss saw the Longhorns go 23-3 on the season and 8-3 in conference play. However, Vic Schaefer is not shying away from his share of the responsibility. He told reporters that he would call the Longhorns athletic director to express how sorry he was.
“I’m accountable,” he said. “That’s my team, but it’s so disappointing. It’s probably the softest team I’ve had in years. I think that’s what’s hard. When you come to a place like Texas… you want to be an active participant in that. You can’t come ride the coattails.”
Texas didn’t have an adequate response to Vanderbilt’s firepower, led by the nation’s top scorer Mikayla Blakes, who scored 34 points on Thursday night. Three other Commodores players finished with double-digit points, including Aubrey Galvan with 18 points.
Vic Schaefer praises Vanderbilt
Despite his criticism of his team, Vic Schaefer also praised the Vanderbilt team. The Commodores are now 24-2 on the season and 10-2 in SEC play.
“That damn team over there is really good. That’s a heck of a team. Take nothing away from that team. They beat the University of Texas. That team’s got heart.”
Prior to Thursday’s game, Texas had not conceded more than 71 points against any opponent. At 54.8 points per game on average, the Longhorns ranked seventh nationally in scoring defense.
However, the Commodores converted 50.9% of their field goal attempts. They’re the second team this season to convert more than 50% of attempts from the field against Texas.
Madison Booker led the Longhorns in scoring with 20 points, as the team converted only three of its 15 attempted 3-pointers. The team has another road game on Sunday, this time in Knoxville, where it’ll face No. 22 Tennessee.
With an 8-3 record against ranked opponents this season, Texas will be looking to earn a win on Sunday.
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Edited by Kayode Akinwumi
