Texas Women’s Basketball: MSU’s Vic Schaefer to be next head coach
The next head coach of the Texas women’s basketball program has arrived on the 40, with former Mississippi State head coach Vic Schaefer.
The Texas women’s basketball program made the move earlier this week to not extend the contract of former head coach Karen Aston through next season. While the move was not completely surprising. Aston did find a good amount of success during her run as head coach on the Forty Acres.
Yet, Texas Longhorns athletic director Chris del Conte is looking to establish a really high standard of success in the sports teams on campus. He opened up the checkbook to allow Texas football head coach Tom Herman to retool his staff and men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart was on the hot seat for much of the last two seasons.
Women’s hoops was sitting on the bubble to get a bid for the NCAA Tournament for much of the 2019-20 season. And there is usually a higher bar set for this program than that. There was a point when Aston took her Longhorns to four straight Sweet 16 appearances. One Elite 8 run was also mixed in, but that was their best season during her time on campus.
Guess who’s coming to the Forty...🏀🤘🏽 pic.twitter.com/hSAyjbvqTH
— Chris Del Conte (@_delconte) April 5, 2020
Texas wound up hiring the former Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Vic Schaefer, per a del Conte Twitter timeline post on April 5. Del Conte moved very fast to find his next women’s hoops head coach just two days after Aston saw the door.
Mississippi State rounded out with a 27-6 (13-3 SEC) record in the season that was, prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic-induced cancellation of the postseason. They held the No. 9 spot in the final AP poll and the No. 10 spot in the Coaches poll.
In each of the last three seasons (prior to 2019-20), Mississippi State won at least 30 games and finished in the top five of the final polls. Mississippi State was also the second ranked team in 2016-17 and 2017-18 in the final polls.
Next. Studs you forgot played for Texas in the 2000's. dark
Schaefer held a total record of 221-62 in eight seasons with the Mississippi State program. He led them to the National Championship Game in 2017 and 2018, but fell short on both occasions. Schaefer does hold a top three winning percentage in the history of women’s college basketball, with a 16-5 record in the NCAA Tournament (per ESPN stats).