Almost as soon as the season ended, the Texas women's basketball team saw an unprecedented and unexpected number of exits to the transfer portal.
Starters Jordan Lee and Justice Carlton announced their exits, as well as bench players Aaliyah Crump and Aaliyah Moore.
Immediately, fans hit the panic button, thinking something was wrong with how head coach Vic Schaefer was running his program, but with the transfer count stopping at four, the fear seemed to ease, at least slightly.
Schaefer's most recent comments about his coaching style and the team's losses to the portal only further eased those fears.
"Two of 'em, I knew that people were involved in trying to see what else was out there for them," Schaefer said. "The third one had no option to come back, but I knew it was going on."
Wow. While Schaefer didn't specify which players he was talking about, it was clear that he and his staff had dismissed one of the players who took their talents to another program.
Moore, who hadn't played since 2024 due to an injury, wasn't a point of discussion, using her entire undergraduate eligibility at Texas and heading to Tennessee for her graduate season. So, that means either Crump, Lee, or Carlton was dismissed from the program following the 2025-26 season.
Carlton and Lee were both starters throughout the regular season and during Texas's run to the Final Four, so it's unlikely that they were dismissed, unless something truly drastic took place off the court that led to Schaefer removing them from his program.
Crump, on the other hand, was a former five-star prospect who barely saw any playing time for the Horns, checking in to just 24 games and only making five starts early in the season.
Vic Schaefer and Texas WBB are looking to the future, not the past
Now, Schaefer by no means was saying indicting Crump or any of the other transfer of anything; he didn't even specify which players he was talking about at the end of the day.
His focus, more so, was on the fact that he knew other teams were talking to his players before the transfer portal actually opened, but he seemed to brush it off as something that happens in this age of college athletics.
Additionally, he made sure to emphasize how much he was looking forward to the upcoming season with Texas's rebuilt roster.
"My new team deserves my undivided attention," Schaefer said about the current roster. "I'm so excited about this team."
Texas women's basketball recruiting class of 2026
- Addison Bjorn, four-star small forward
- Bri Cirttendon, four-star power forward
- Aaliah Spaight, four-star point guard
- Amalia Holguin, four-star shooting guard
- Isi Etute, four-star power forward
Filling in the holes left by the three major transfer departures, and former starting point guard Rori Harmon's departure to the WNBA, Schaefer was able to re
Schaefer leaned into the fact that all five of the freshmen could see playing time this season, not because he was scared to lose them to the portal, but because he truly believes they are already good enough to do so.
Simply put, even with the surprise departures, at least for those outside of the program, the Longhorns are going to be just fine next season, and Schaefer has no hesitations about how he leads his team.
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