Can the Texas women’s basketball team recreate a Southwest Conference achievement in the Southeastern Conference?
Back in 1983, the first year Texas women’s basketball was in the SWC, the Longhorns won the league’s regular-season championship. Forty-two years later, Texas is closing in on the same feat in its SEC debut season.
Texas enters the final day of the regular season locked in a first-place tie with South Carolina in the SEC standings. Texas (28-2, 14-1) hosts Florida (14-15, 5-10) on Sunday (1 p.m., SEC Network, 103.1) while South Carolina (26-3, 14-1) hosts Kentucky (22-5, 11-4). The Longhorns will clinch at least a share of the SEC title with a win and could claim the SEC crown if South Carolina also loses.
What channel is Texas vs Florida?
TV Channel: SEC Network
Radio: 103.1 FM
WATCH TEXAS WOMEN’S HOOPS HERE
What time does Texas women’s basketball play?
Date: March 2
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Moody Center
WATCH THE LONGHORNS THIS SEASON
What’s next for Texas guard Shay Holle?
Sunday is Senior Day, so Texas will honor Rori Harmon, Shay Holle, Taylor Jones and Aaliyah Moore during a postgame ceremony. Due to medical redshirts, Harmon and Moore each have a year of eligibility left although both players insisted on Wednesday that they hadn’t yet made decisions about their futures. Jones is a sixth-year senior with professional prospects.
But what about Holle?
This week, Holle acknowledged that this is probably her last season. An Austin native and the all-time leader in games played at Texas, Holle has earned a finance degree from the McCombs School of Business and is participating in a graduate program for strategic communications. This past summer she did an internship with the U.S. Open golf tournament.
“I do think there’s a lot of options out there for me, which is exciting and a little overwhelming,” Holle said. “I’m not completely saying that I will be done with basketball. I think I will be after this, I think I’ll be content in my basketball career. But you never know what opportunities may come up after the season’s over.
“But honestly, right now, it still feels like we have so many games left in front of us that I’m not really thinking about that yet. But yeah, I’m excited to probably get out of Austin. I’ve been in this 20-minute radius my whole life, which has been awesome and I wouldn’t change a thing, but I think it’ll be really good for my personal growth to just get out a little bit, meet some new people, get uncomfortable, all those things. So I think I’ll definitely get out of Austin, and what I will be doing out of Austin, I haven’t fully decided yet.”
Holle has started in all 30 games this season. In a 68-64 win at Mississippi State on Thursday, she scored a season-high 16 points.
Schaefer, Texas to raise money for Neighborhood Longhorns Program
For the fourth straight season, Senior Day will double as UT’s “10K for 10K” game. That means that Texas coach Vic Schaefer has pledged to donate $10,000 to the Neighborhood Longhorns Program if Sunday’s game draws 10,000 fans. Since Texas has already announced a sellout, Schaefer will be getting his checkbook out.
Due to Schaefer and additional pledges from various donors, Texas raised $155,000 for the Neighborhood Longhorns Program when it drew a crowd of 10,364 for last year’s “10K for 10K” game.
Florida has not had any recent success against ranked teams
Texas is No. 1 in the Associated Press and USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, and that could be bad news for Florida. The Gators last beat a ranked team in 2022.
Freshman guard Liv McGill leads Florida with the 16.4 points that she is scoring per game while senior center Ra Shaya Kyle is averaging 14.8 points and 9.0 rebounds. Senior forward Eriny Kindred, who attended nearby Del Valle, is playing 10.4 minutes per game in a reserve role.
Texas vs. Florida prediction
Texas. The Longhorns entered this season with a handful of goals, one of which was to win an SEC championship. The Gators won’t prevent Texas from checking that task off its preseason checklist.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas basketball vs Florida: TV channel, time, game preview
