This time, the Texas women's showdown with Okahoma is about a championship, not rivalry

danny davis, austin american-statesman

Wed, Feb 28, 2024, 1:01 PM·5 min read

Having grown up just a few miles away from the University of Oklahoma, Aaliyah Moore had some questions to answer when she committed to play women’s basketball at Texas.

"I definitely was asked a lot of whys. A lot of people were wondering why I chose Texas,” said Moore, a two-time Oklahoma Gatorade player of the year at Moore High who's now a third-year forward for the Longhorns.

Moore is going back home Wednesday and she's bringing her UT teammates with her. Texas will be Oklahoma's guest in a critical Big 12 showdown at the Lloyd Noble Center. So it's more than a homecoming for Moore. And it's more than another installment of the schools' Red River Rivalry series, which the Longhorns lead 39-28.

Texas forward Aaliyah Moore splits Oklahoma defenders Kiersten Johnson, right, and Skylar Vann, left, during the first half of their Jan. 24 game at Moody Center, a 91-87 Sooners victory. Texas hasn't lost since, however, and Wednesday night's rematch in Norman, Okla., probably will decide the Big 12 championship.

Wednesday night's game likely will decide the Big 12 championship. With two games left in the regular season, No. 20 Oklahoma (20-7, 14-2) holds a slight lead over No. 3 Texas (26-3, 13-3) in the conference race. If Oklahoma beats Texas, the Sooners will secure their first outright conference championship since 2009. If Texas wins, the Longhorns and Sooners will be tied with one game to play, both winnable matchups on Saturday: Texas at home against ninth-place BYU and OU at seventh-place Kansas.

In women's basketball, they're Red River Frenemies

One year after they split the Big 12 championship, Texas and Oklahoma have actually made for an odd couple. After all, it’s hard for Texas and Oklahoma to generate more hate for each other than the SEC-bound teams have received from the Big 12 schools they’re leaving behind in a few months.

And psst, don't tell anybody, but the coaches of these programs actually like each other. Darrell Royal and Barry Switzer, Vic Schaefer and Jennie Baranczyk are not.

"I have more respect than probably anyone in the country for Vic Schaefer," Baranczyk said after playing Texas in Austin on Jan. 24. "At OU, I'm not supposed to say that, right? But we have a lot of respect for each other. We're not that different."

"I think you can say we're friends," Schaefer said this week. "It's not like we're talking on the phone every day, every week or every month, but the feeling (of respect) is mutual for her. I watch her teams and I marvel at the chemistry, the unselfishness, the way they play. There's times I want to take clips of them and show our team, hey, this is what an extra pass will get you."

Texas point guard Madison Booker defends against Oklahoma guard Nevaeh Tot during the second half of Oklahoma's 91-87 win at Moody Center on Jan. 24. Tot finished the game with 10 assists and no turnovers.

Texas is on a hot streak as season ends

Ranked third in the Associated Press poll this week, Texas has won eight straight games by an average of 16.4 points. Over the course of that winning streak, the Longhorns haven't trailed in a fourth quarter once and the four deficits they have faced have lasted a total of 72 seconds.

Their last loss? A 91-87 slip-up to Oklahoma last month. That loss served as a wake-up call, which was fitting since Schaefer made the Longhorns practice at 5:15 a.m. the morning after.

"Sometimes you need to get your butt kicked to realize that you need to kick it in gear and that everyone is out for you," Moore said. "That game for us was an eye-opener about things that we need to work on."

Texas head coach Vic Schaefer talks to forward Aaliyah Moore during the Feb. 1 game against Baylor. Moore, who hails not far from the OU campus, chose to sign with Red River Rival Texas coming out of high school three years ago.

Getting defensive was what Texas needed

The thing that Texas needed to work on? Its defense, which is normally a calling card of a Schaefer-coached team. But those 91 points scored by Oklahoma were the second-most allowed by Texas in the 132 games since he took over the program ahead of the 2020-21 season. Oklahoma knocked down 10 3-pointers, scored 46 points in the paint and veteran point guard Nevaeh Tot distributed 10 assists with no turnovers.

But since that Jan. 24 setback, Texas is holding its opponents to an average of 57 points. Five teams have shot under 40% from the field, and nobody has shot better than 45%. Texas has forced at least 13 turnovers in each of those games in its streak.

"Defensively, (Texas) really locked us up and we never really got comfortable," Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie said after a 61-54 loss to UT on Feb. 4. The Wildcats are averaging 72.5 points per game. "We just never could get in a rhythm offensively and I think that's a credit to Vic's team. It's credit to Texas."

As for Oklahoma, the Sooners have won eight of the nine games they've played since their trip to Austin with the exception being a four-point loss at West Virginia on Feb. 17. Oklahoma is ranked 17 spots below Texas in the AP poll this week, but the Sooners have never trailed UT in the Big 12 standings.

At 77.8 points per game, Oklahoma ranks behind only Texas in the Big 12 when it comes to scoring. Among the 349 qualifying Division I teams, Oklahoma ranks eighth in rebounds and second in assists.

"They played really well (in Austin), they scored 91 points. We've got to play better. We've got to do things better," Schaefer said. "When you play a team like Oklahoma, they're so well coached and got great players and they can all shoot it. (They have) kids that play really hard. I watch their team and it's not hard to really appreciate that team because of how hard they play."