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Pint-sized point guard Rori Harmon is Texas Longhorns' heart and soul
- Story by
- Pint-sized point guard Rori Harmon is Texas Longhorns' heart and soul
AUSTIN, TX — Rori Harmon spent all of the fourth quarter in an unusual spot, on the bench. Her Texas Longhorns were putting the finishing touches on a blowout win in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, so Harmon sat for the better art of nine minutes.
But then, head coach Vic Schaefer summoned Harmon back to the scorer's table with less than one minute remaining.
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Harmon went in for an encore to deafening applause. When the beloved senior point guard subbed out again a few seconds later, she and Schaefer held each other in a long embrace.
In her final home game at Moody Center, Harmon had nine points, six assists and five steals in Texas' 100-58 win against Oregon, which guaranteed the Longhorns their fifth trip to the Sweet 16 in the last six seasons. They will play next week in Fort Worth, but Sunday was Harmon's swan song in Austin.
After the final buzzer, the player who defines this era of Texas basketball clutched a microphone at center court and bid the crowd farewell. Fans chanted her name before she could speak.
"I hope to see y'all in Fort Worth," said Harmon, whose Longhorns will play the winner of No. 5 seed Kentucky vs. No. 4 West Virginia in Fort Worth on Saturday. "Thank you so much. Hook 'em! I love you guys!"
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When Schaefer was at Mississippi State, he maxed out his use of the school's charter plane on multiple trips from Starkville, Mississippi, to Houston to recruit Harmon. His effort proved worthwhile as Harmon has become the cornerstone of Schaefer's first recruiting class at Texas and, in the last five seasons, the heart and soul of the Longhorns' program – not just because of what she does on the court, but because of who she is off it.
The diminutive point guard plays and leads with Texas-sized conviction, a resolve strengthened through adversity. After two stellar college seasons, Harmon tore the ACL in her right knee and was sidelined for a year and a half. The injury nearly broke her emotionally but, in the end, gave her a reason to demand even more from herself.
When Harmon returned to the court for the 2024-25 season, it was with a new perspective that deepened her commitment to her team and allowed her to lead with vulnerability.
"When you go through something as traumatic as that where it takes you out of the game for a really long time, you become more grateful about things," she said. "You really just want to enjoy the process. I know wins are a lot and very important, wins and losses are very important, but at that moment I just really wanted to come back and enjoy playing with my teammates again."
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Harmon will leave Texas as the program's all-time leader in career assists and steals after she broke a pair of 40-year-old school records this season. Her 952 career assists (and counting) rank her 10th all-time in Division I history. She is only Division I player to reach 1,500-plus points, 900-plus assists, 600-plus rebounds and 350-plus steals. Legendary Texas coach Jody Conradt attended Harmon's final postgame press conference at Moody Center following Sunday's win.
Harmon's last rodeo is coming, but she cannot indulge in nostalgia just yet. Not while her quest to win a national championship remains alive.
"I've been through a lot here at the University of Texas. I've seen plenty of different teams come and go here at this program for women's basketball, but to win a national championship would really be the icing on top of the cake," Harmon said. "It would be a surreal feeling, I'm sure, when all your work that you've done from your freshman year to now pretty much all paid off."
The Longhorns got devastatingly close last season, when they made the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed but lost in the Final Four to No. 2 seed South Carolina, the eventual national runner-up.
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Texas was awarded a No. 1 seed again in this season's tournament, and Longhorns players are determined there will be no distractions or regrets. They all remember the feeling of falling short last year. They are playing with an edge sharpened by a singular focus.
"The edge comes from Rori Harmon," Schaefer said. "She isn't ready for it to be over."
'She's our glue'
When Schaefer thinks about how to summarize Rori Harmon, he comes up with the word "reliable."
No matter the situation or opponent, the Longhorns can count on Harmon to show up with the same defensive toughness and competitive spirit. Twelve games into her junior year, Harmon's tore her right ACL and threatened to derail that consistency.
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"I remember her asking me, 'Why did this happen?'" recalled Rori's father, Rodney Harmon. "But I told her, 'If you come back, you can be a testimony for other people.'"
Following surgery on her knee, Harmon rehabbed for the better part of a year and missed the entire 2023-24 season. The Longhorns gave the starting point guard role to then-freshman Madison Booker, who had never played the position, while Harmon coached from the sideline.
That adversity accelerated Harmon's growth as a leader, said Texas associate head coach Elena Lovato.
"That part of her journey is going to be the true game-changer for her," Lovato said. "It was really cool to see how she didn't really stay stuck in her own feelings. Right after surgery, she had already turned the page and she was worried about helping Booker navigate being a point guard for Coach Schaefer.
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"So I think Booker being a freshman and being thrown in that fire enabled Rori to see things from another perspective and I think that kind of escalated her growth in that leadership role."
Lovato, who helped Schaefer recruit Harmon at both Mississippi State and Texas, said while Harmon always possessed an intricate understanding of basketball, her breakthrough occurred when she improved her communication with teammates off the court.
This season's Longhorns team is incredibly close because players let their guards down around each other. Lovato attributes that in large part to Harmon, who she said became more of an open book following her ACL injury.
"Building trust and relationships with her teammates, it's kind of helped her have an even larger voice, not only on the floor but managing egos in the locker room and all that," Lovato said. "I think she has so much to offer because she did have such a high basketball IQ, but people don't care what you know until they know that you care."
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Leadership to Harmon means holding herself and her teammates accountable while setting the tone with her energy and consistency. She's had that responsibility since she was a freshman point guard on the varsity team at Cypress Creek High School, but she's not a naturally outspoken person. It comes easier to her now at 23 than it did when she was 18.
"I've always been able to lead by example throughout my whole life because I was always very disciplined and I worked hard in everything that I did," Harmon said. "But at some point, I had to realize I had to start speaking more and not just showing and leading by example."
Sometimes, that's challenging her teammates, like when she piped up during a film session this season to remind the Longhorns the program's standard for defense is to hold opponents below 60 points. Often, it's reading her teammates' emotions and offering them whatever encouragement they need in that moment.
When Texas center Kyla Oldacre transferred into the program from Miami prior to the 2024-25 season, she expected Harmon to be like some of the other top players she'd encountered: stuck-up and egotistical. That couldn't have been further from reality.
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"She's such a huge leader in how she carries herself and carries everyone," Oldacre said. "I call her a sister. She just goes through each individual and lifts them up, and we can lift her up. Even just how she brings us together, she's our glue, basically."
Harmon's lasting legacy at Texas
Harmon's teammates call her "The Menace" because she's such a pest on defense. Her playing style has endeared her to Longhorns fans and coaches, and even to members of opposing teams.
"You can't help but love her, really," Oregon coach Kelly Graves said the day before his team lost to Texas in the NCAA Tournament. "She's the one that makes 'em go. I think they are who they are because of her in large fashion. You're always on attack with her, at both ends of the floor. For 94 feet, you're on attack. She's either in your shorts defensively or she's looking to attack and create for others."
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When Harmon was barely old enough to read and write, she begged her father to let her dribble a basketball up and down the driveway with her brother, who was three years older. She modeled her game after Allen Iverson because she admired how he used his speed to counter being undersized. Whether Harmon played a good game or a bad game, she always woke up the next morning itching to get back on the court.
"I'm not running away from it – the pressure, mistakes," Harmon said. "I'm not necessarily afraid of failure. Like obviously I don't want to fail, but I'm not afraid to fail, because I know there's plenty of opportunities to try again and do better."
Her Texas teammates shake their heads at how Harmon scrutinizes her own play during practices and film sessions. She isn't trying to be harsh, just objectively analytical, but sometimes it comes across like Beethoven criticizing his symphonies.
"We watch film from last year and she'll be like, 'Oh my gosh, how did y'all tolerate me? I was so slow last year,'" Texas forward Justice Carlton said. "I'm like, uh, not to me. The standard that she has for herself is just insane."
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To Harmon, the explanation is simple: She hates losing more than she loves winning. She's felt that way since she first picked up a basketball at age 4, which is why she is so disciplined in her preparation and why she plays so hard.
Schaefer often tells his players, "Play with emotion, but don't play emotional." While Harmon will celebrate a teammate's play when she is on the bench, she rarely reacts when she's on the court. She believes that when she keeps her composure, it permeates the rest of the team.
"It's good to have a high standard," Harmon said. "That's what makes players great, is when they're hard on themselves. The growth that comes with that is how you respond to your own mistakes, and I think I've responded really well."
Harmon is so entwined with Texas women's basketball that it's difficult to imagine one's future without the other, but time keeps ticking whether counted in 30-second shot clock possessions or by another measure.
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The Longhorns are set up for continued success next season with returning players including three-time All-American Booker and rising star Aaliyah Crump, as well as an incoming recruiting class ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Harmon has a shot to be selected in the 2026 WNBA Draft on April 13. The Longhorns haven't had a player drafted since 2021, when Charli Collier was taken by the Dallas Wings as the No. 1 overall pick.
Harmon and her family will carry an everlasting appreciation for the Texas teammates, coaches, fans and administrators who stuck by her through times challenging and triumphant.
"They have made us feel like this was home," Rodney Harmon said. "It's going to be sad to move to the next level. It'll be sad to leave them, but I'm not sad to go where I think she's going to be going."
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In one of Schaefer's first recruiting phone conversations with Rori Harmon nearly 10 years ago, he told her, "I want you to be able to leave a legacy here."
"That's honestly stuck with me every single day," Harmon said. "And my loyalty remains here and to him, so I'm super grateful I play with so many great teams along the (way). I feel like we got better each year."
On the heels of scoring a Texas NCAA Tournament record 40 points against Oregon, Booker said that meeting Harmon solidified her decision to commit to Texas.
"I wanted to play with a good point guard, and that was Rori Harmon," Booker said. "I didn't realize what hard work was until I'd seen Rori Harmon in the gym every day before practice, after practice, getting shots up. I feel like she's pushed me and I think our journey here together is just a sisterhood. I have her back, she has my back for sure. I'm going to miss playing with her."
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Harmon will leave Texas as one of the most decorated players in program history, and said she hopes her legacy also includes how she treated people and how hard she competed.
Adding a national championship would make it even sweeter, she acknowledged, but not just for her.
"You don't necessarily do this stuff for yourself, you know?" Harmon said. "You do things for other people. You do it for your team. You do it for the program. You do it for your coaches who work hard. You do it for your head coach who barely gets sleep to get us prepared to win games."
There are more sleepless nights ahead. The clock has not run out on Harmon's career just yet, and she's prepared to soak in every last second.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Inside Texas Longhorns' Rori Harmon's final quest for an NCAA championship
