Before the NCAA season kicked off, ESPN gave the No. 2 Texas Longhorns an 8.9 percent chance of going undefeated. So far, that prediction held. However, their brutal schedule finally caught up, as No. 14 LSU Tigers handed them a massive 70-65 upset. To head coach Vic Schaefer, though, their locker room isn’t to be blamed; the scheduling is.

“I mean, two weeks ago, the team we just played was ranked No. 5 in the country. It’s a bear. And, you know, they obviously have a vendetta against Texas. Because not only did we start the league playing South Carolina twice last year, but this year we get LSU twice,” Schaefer said after the game.

“Out of 16 conference games, we also have to play South Carolina on the road, as well as LSU. And we get them back-to-back in the same week. Make that make sense. The league is hard enough as it is, but to bless my group with that… it really has a stench to it.

“I’m really disappointed in the league for putting our kids in that position.”

The week doesn’t get easier for Texas, which travels to No. 3 South Carolina on Thursday. What will make the outing even harder is that Dawn Staley’s group is 4-0 in the conference and 17-1 on the season, posting similar numbers in key statistical categories as the Longhorns. One silver lining that the visitors can expect, though, is that they are the only team that the Gamecocks lost to this season, back when they met in late November to lift the Players Era Championship title.

In February, the Longhorns also have games lined up against top-10 seeded teams, including Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt, along with another meeting with LSU. No doubt, Texas has the 4th toughest schedule this year, per Warren Nolan.

The loss came against a Tigers team that had just secured its first victory against an Associated Press top-2 team since 2008, snapping a 17-game losing streak in such matchups. For Texas, rebounding from this defeat might be tough. The head coach, though, while accepting his squad came out just fine, understands where they also lacked.

“We played better, didn’t we?” Schaefer said of benching his starting point guard, Rori Harmon. The Longhorns scored 26 points in the final quarter, compared to 11, 14, and 14 in the first three. “Congratulations, LSU. I thought they were really tough today, thought they played much harder than we did, and I thought they were way tougher than we were today,” he said. “By far our worst game of the year, and we’ll give them credit for that.”

Indeed, LSU rediscovered its form again tonight. After losing to Kentucky and Vanderbilt, they bounced back in their last game against Georgia and repeated against Texas. According to guard Mikaylah Williams, all they planned to do all night was stick together no matter what. That certainly proved fruitful for Kim Mulkey.

LSU hands an upset to the Longhorns

Williams led LSU with 20 points, 7 rebounds, 5 steals, and 4 assists. Starters Jada Richard and Flau’jae Johnson scored 10 points each, while ZaKiyah Johnson and MiLaysia Fulwiley added the same score from the bench.

For the Longhorns, only Madison Booker seemed to have a good day as the junior forward led the game with 24 points on 10 of 16 from the field, along with 7 rebounds. Harmon struggled, going 1 of 7 from the field and finishing with a season-low two points with one rebound and three assists. Texas was outrebounded 44-35 and conceded a season-high 17 turnovers.

While Schaefer’s resistance against the schedule is understandable, it doesn’t exactly get any easier for other teams either.

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Dawn Staley and South Carolina will face No.5 Oklahoma and No.7 Vanderbilt in consecutive games. However, only one of them is on the road. Vanderbilt will travel to South Carolina, No.18 Mississippi, and No.6 Kentucky, with only one home game against Florida in between. While the slate is tough for Texas, the conference demands facing such a schedule.

Before this game, LSU and Kim Mulkey were 1-2 in SEC play. The narrative was that Mulkey’s easier schedule had blown up in their face. The defense did not let up to start the game as LSU held the Longhorns to 25 points in the first two quarters, their lowest-scoring half this season. The central part, as it has always been, was getting the rebounds.

Kim Mulkey Enforces Strict Punishment To Continue Rebounding Legacy

LSU has been an elite rebounding program in the last few years, especially thanks to Angel Reese. Kim Mulkey has taken pride in that.

“I’m just stunned that we got outrebounded as we did,” Mulkey had said after the 80-78 Kentucky loss. “That literally was the difference in the game. The entire game was lost because of rebounding, and we’ve got to fix that.”

That’s what the squad did, and Mulkey had to employ a straightforward but tiresome tactic.

“We’ve had practices with a rebound bubble on, so the ball can’t go in, so you have to rebound,” Mikaylah Williams said postgame. “If you didn’t get it, there was running involved. I’m proud of how we rebounded today.”

The team does not have Reese or Aneesah Morrow to depend on for the rebounds anymore. Earlier, it was almost a given that the team would get the ball back. However, now none of their current squad members are in the top 50 rebounders in the country. Rebounding is essential for their transition offense and keeping control of the game.

To maintain the balance, it has to be a team effort. Against Texas, they executed that perfectly.

Grace Knox had 7 boards, Amiyah Joyner had 9, while Williams and Johnson chipped in with 7 and 6 rebounds, respectively. It was also one of the best defensive displays of the season, with an adjusted defensive rating of 67.1, per Barttorvik. If LSU continues this trend, they will surely touch the top 5 in the AP poll and be in a strong seeding once March arrives.