AUSTIN (KXAN) — Following two wins over top-15 teams, the Texas Longhorns shot up the Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball rankings Monday.
Texas is now No. 7 in the poll after taking out No. 13 Baylor in Waco and No. 2 Kansas State on Sunday, moving up five spots from last week. Baylor dropped five slots to No. 18 and the Wildcats fell six places to No. 8.
After the 61-54 win over the Wildcats, Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer said even though the team “wasn’t at their best,” he was proud of the effort in front of about 8,300 fans at Moody Center.
“It made for a great atmosphere,” he said. “I’m happy for our players to be 21-3, and having gone through what they’ve gone, and continue to go through, I just couldn’t be more proud of them. It’s hard to win at this level and they’ve won back-to-back top-15 games. All they’re doing is proving they are good enough.”
The Longhorns are now the highest-ranked Big 12 team in the poll after moving a spot in front of Kansas State. West Virginia moved up one spot from last week to No. 22 and Oklahoma, who leads the Big 12 with a 9-1 record, stayed at No. 24. The Longhorns are 8-3 in conference play and are in fourth place, a half-game behind the Mountaineers.
South Carolina is still undefeated at 21-0 and held the top spot in the poll. Iowa moved up one spot to No. 2, followed by North Carolina State, Colorado and Ohio State. Stanford is No. 6, followed by the Longhorns, Wildcats, UCLA and Southern California to round out the top 10.
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The Longhorns can heal some bumps and bruises with six days between games. They head to Fort Worth on Saturday to take on TCU, and Schaefer said the players will get a couple of days off while he goes on a recruiting trip. He said after the Kansas State game that DeYona Gaston is still dealing with a bad ankle, but she was able to play 23 minutes and score eight points against the Wildcats. He said Aaliyah Moore is also nursing an ankle injury and Madison Booker’s hamstring has been bothering her intermittently, and all need to be healthy for Texas to make a run in March.
Schaefer said he shortened the team’s court time on Friday to keep his players fresh, something he didn’t enjoy doing but thought he had to.
“I hated Friday,” he said. “We watched film for an hour and 15 minutes, we were on the court for about 45 and lifted for 30. I’ve never done that. Ever. I felt like I needed to do that to get some key people some rest.”