Why Vic Schaefer says Texas Longhorns' Final Four loss to UCLA will haunt him
Texas women's basketball had one of its worst offensive nights against UCLA in the Final Four.
PHOENIX — Vic Schaefer has fallen in the Final Four before; he's lost in national championship games. Somehow, though, the Texas women's basketball loss Friday to UCLA may stick with him more than any of those other defeats. "I think this one will haunt me as the coach for probably till the day I die," he said after the Longhorns' national-semifinals defeat.
Texas Longhorns center Kyla Oldacre (00) fights for a rebound during the NCAA Final Four game against UCLA at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman) Each team that made the Final Four was a No.
1 seed, but the Longhorns were favored to beat UCLA and had the second-best odds to win the national title of the four semifinalists. Plus, the vaunted UConn Huskies, the defending champions, lost earlier Friday. So the Longhorns knew when they took they court, if they could get past the Bruins for a second time this season, they'd go up against a South Carolina team it had beaten two out of the last three meetings.
Not a UConn team that had won 54 straight coming into Friday. Then the Longhorns had one of their worst nights statistically in it's biggest game yet, despite 65 shot attempts. Only one Longhorn reached double-figure scoring in a game where the Bruins shot just 40% from the field and had some of their lowest-scoring quarters of the season.
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