In Saturday’s Elite 8 media session, Lauren Ebo was asked how the team liked to mess with the off the court version of Rori Harmon (the laid back and reserved version). She answered that they called Rori the Fetus because of her youth. Everyone in the room had a good laugh but later, during Vic’s time, he asked the room of reporters to disregard that little tidbit (ha!). As expected, it’s been mentioned by multiple media members who were there. Here is a look from The Athletic about the Longhorns’ little floor general:
See it, be it: Texas point guard Rori Harmon and a season of wide-awake potential
A few hours before tipoff every game day this season, Texas freshman Rori Harmon settled into her favorite five minutes of the day.
She turned her phone to silent, and for the few minutes before she fell asleep for her pre-game nap, Harmon found her quiet. With no distractions, no noise, she thought only of potential.
“Even before I close my eyes and go to sleep, I actually just kind of get to think about the whole game and how I want it to go,” Harmon says. “I can just think about all the possibilities within the game.”
Entering the season, Harmon imagined the possibilities of what her freshman year could be like, what her potential might be, but even with her lofty goals, it was hard to see this: a Big 12 championship, Big 12 Freshman of the Year, a berth in the Elite Eight against the reigning national champions.
“I don’t want to say I wasn’t expecting it,” Harmon says, “but it definitely came around quick.”
On the court, Harmon is the Longhorns’ first point of defensive attack, going 100 mph while maintaining the ability to change direction at the drop of a dime. She picks up opposing guards for the full 94 feet of the court, sometimes for 40 minutes in a game, with the explicit task of turning them from side to side as many times as possible. She forces veteran guards to use more dribbles than they’d like, surprisingly closing up passing lanes with her 5-foot-6 frame. And on the other end, she commands the Texas offense and creates for her teammates.
But what separates her from not only other point guards, but also other players across the country is her motor, according to coach Vic Schaefer. “She just has an unbelievable energy level and effort level that, let’s face it, even seniors don’t have,” he said. “If you’re playing with a person like that, with a player like that … you can’t help but look at her and go, ‘She’s playing pretty hard, I guess I’ll play hard too.’ I just think that’s infectious.’”
But away from the court, she’s not necessarily that non-stop motor player. She’s more like those five minutes before her pre-game naps — quiet, reticent, reserved. Schaefer says she’s not exactly a fast walker. Her dad, Rodney, says she’s the kind of person who prefers to sleep in (with the exception being when he’s up early making waffles, eggs and bacon for breakfast).
“She’s pretty quiet, honestly,” teammate Lauren Ebosaid. “She’s not as hype as you see her on the court.”
Earlier in the season, as the freshman began to dominate, her teammates gave her the nickname “Fetus,” because of her youth and relative small size. It didn’t bother her. She never saw her age or size as a disadvantage. In elementary school, she was the second-tallest girl in her class. But that quickly changed, and with it, Harmon learned the ways to turn her height (or lack thereof) into an advantage — how she could do things on the floor that taller players couldn’t do. And she has always played up in age groups during youth basketball.
The nickname? She embraced it.
“It’s almost like a compliment,” she says. “They must think I’m pretty cute.”
Before “Fetus” was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and before Texas became a team bound for the Elite Eight, there were several questions coming into the season about the Longhorns. They lost three starters from last season’s squad that went 21-10, including Charli Collier, the No. 1 WNBA Draft pick who led Texas in both points and rebounds.
There was a lot of production to replace, and a true freshman point guard is often a roller coaster ride that doesn’t exactly lead to steady results or a deep run in March.
But Schaefer had an idea that Harmon might be different. It came even before she dropped 21 points on Stanford, the Longhorns’ Elite Eight matchup, in the second game of the season.
He heavily recruited dozens (and seen hundreds, if not thousands) of points guards on the recruiting trail during his coaching career. He walked out of high school gyms thinking, that player can the score the ball, or that guard can see the floor well. Every time he saw Harmon, he walked out of the gym and thought, man, that kid plays her guts out.
And it’s exactly what she has done throughout the season for Texas.
Harmon says that the biggest part of her learning curve came on offense, just in understanding when and how Schaefer wanted the Longhorns to get shots. She needed to learn the difference between seeing an open teammate versus the right teammate depending on time on the shot clock, place on the floor, situation in the game.
She admits that lesson hit her the hardest during Texas’ three-game losing streak in January, when the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma and then twice to Baylor.
“You always learn the most going through your biggest adversities,” she said.
Since then, Texas has won 14 straight games, and Harmon has averaged 13 points, 6.5 assists and 2.7 steals. The Longhorns are one game away from making their fourth Final Four in program history and their first since 2003. Their opponent in the next game is familiar to them; there’s game tape from this season, and Harmon remembers that game well, even if it feels like a long time ago.
At some point in the midst of scoring 21 points, she looked up at the scoreboard and says she thought, “Wow, like, we are doing pretty good against the defending national champs.”
And on Sunday, when Harmon lays down for her pre-game nap before the Longhorns take the court against Stanford, she’ll be able to think of the possibilities for the rematch. In the quiet, she’ll have some time to imagine the potential of the game and its aftermath, the chance to cut down nets in Spokane and move on to Minneapolis. She’ll drift to sleep, and when she wakes, it will no longer be time for the stillness and the quiet.
Harmon’s motor will take over as she plays her guts out for a chance at the Final Four.
@mln59 @thar0902 @icdb17 @wb3032 @BrownHorn
See it, be it: Texas point guard Rori Harmon and a season of wide-awake potential
A few hours before tipoff every game day this season, Texas freshman Rori Harmon settled into her favorite five minutes of the day.
She turned her phone to silent, and for the few minutes before she fell asleep for her pre-game nap, Harmon found her quiet. With no distractions, no noise, she thought only of potential.
“Even before I close my eyes and go to sleep, I actually just kind of get to think about the whole game and how I want it to go,” Harmon says. “I can just think about all the possibilities within the game.”
Entering the season, Harmon imagined the possibilities of what her freshman year could be like, what her potential might be, but even with her lofty goals, it was hard to see this: a Big 12 championship, Big 12 Freshman of the Year, a berth in the Elite Eight against the reigning national champions.
“I don’t want to say I wasn’t expecting it,” Harmon says, “but it definitely came around quick.”
On the court, Harmon is the Longhorns’ first point of defensive attack, going 100 mph while maintaining the ability to change direction at the drop of a dime. She picks up opposing guards for the full 94 feet of the court, sometimes for 40 minutes in a game, with the explicit task of turning them from side to side as many times as possible. She forces veteran guards to use more dribbles than they’d like, surprisingly closing up passing lanes with her 5-foot-6 frame. And on the other end, she commands the Texas offense and creates for her teammates.
But what separates her from not only other point guards, but also other players across the country is her motor, according to coach Vic Schaefer. “She just has an unbelievable energy level and effort level that, let’s face it, even seniors don’t have,” he said. “If you’re playing with a person like that, with a player like that … you can’t help but look at her and go, ‘She’s playing pretty hard, I guess I’ll play hard too.’ I just think that’s infectious.’”
But away from the court, she’s not necessarily that non-stop motor player. She’s more like those five minutes before her pre-game naps — quiet, reticent, reserved. Schaefer says she’s not exactly a fast walker. Her dad, Rodney, says she’s the kind of person who prefers to sleep in (with the exception being when he’s up early making waffles, eggs and bacon for breakfast).
“She’s pretty quiet, honestly,” teammate Lauren Ebosaid. “She’s not as hype as you see her on the court.”
Earlier in the season, as the freshman began to dominate, her teammates gave her the nickname “Fetus,” because of her youth and relative small size. It didn’t bother her. She never saw her age or size as a disadvantage. In elementary school, she was the second-tallest girl in her class. But that quickly changed, and with it, Harmon learned the ways to turn her height (or lack thereof) into an advantage — how she could do things on the floor that taller players couldn’t do. And she has always played up in age groups during youth basketball.
The nickname? She embraced it.
“It’s almost like a compliment,” she says. “They must think I’m pretty cute.”
Before “Fetus” was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and before Texas became a team bound for the Elite Eight, there were several questions coming into the season about the Longhorns. They lost three starters from last season’s squad that went 21-10, including Charli Collier, the No. 1 WNBA Draft pick who led Texas in both points and rebounds.
There was a lot of production to replace, and a true freshman point guard is often a roller coaster ride that doesn’t exactly lead to steady results or a deep run in March.
But Schaefer had an idea that Harmon might be different. It came even before she dropped 21 points on Stanford, the Longhorns’ Elite Eight matchup, in the second game of the season.
He heavily recruited dozens (and seen hundreds, if not thousands) of points guards on the recruiting trail during his coaching career. He walked out of high school gyms thinking, that player can the score the ball, or that guard can see the floor well. Every time he saw Harmon, he walked out of the gym and thought, man, that kid plays her guts out.
And it’s exactly what she has done throughout the season for Texas.
Harmon says that the biggest part of her learning curve came on offense, just in understanding when and how Schaefer wanted the Longhorns to get shots. She needed to learn the difference between seeing an open teammate versus the right teammate depending on time on the shot clock, place on the floor, situation in the game.
She admits that lesson hit her the hardest during Texas’ three-game losing streak in January, when the Longhorns lost to Oklahoma and then twice to Baylor.
“You always learn the most going through your biggest adversities,” she said.
Since then, Texas has won 14 straight games, and Harmon has averaged 13 points, 6.5 assists and 2.7 steals. The Longhorns are one game away from making their fourth Final Four in program history and their first since 2003. Their opponent in the next game is familiar to them; there’s game tape from this season, and Harmon remembers that game well, even if it feels like a long time ago.
At some point in the midst of scoring 21 points, she looked up at the scoreboard and says she thought, “Wow, like, we are doing pretty good against the defending national champs.”
And on Sunday, when Harmon lays down for her pre-game nap before the Longhorns take the court against Stanford, she’ll be able to think of the possibilities for the rematch. In the quiet, she’ll have some time to imagine the potential of the game and its aftermath, the chance to cut down nets in Spokane and move on to Minneapolis. She’ll drift to sleep, and when she wakes, it will no longer be time for the stillness and the quiet.
Harmon’s motor will take over as she plays her guts out for a chance at the Final Four.
@mln59 @thar0902 @icdb17 @wb3032 @BrownHorn
