Vic’s Texas Coaching Staff
- Thread starter DFW_Horn
- Start date
This from today’s AAS article about Johnnie:
Harris said she has been approached by smaller schools looking for head coaches in the past. Those jobs don’t interest her, however. She has spent the past 17 seasons working at Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Arkansas and North Carolina State.
“I love competing at this top level,” Harris said. “Coach Schaefer lets me coach. He lets me do everything a head coach does. He’s prepared me, but in order for me to make that move, it would have to be the right situation.”
Harris said she has been approached by smaller schools looking for head coaches in the past. Those jobs don’t interest her, however. She has spent the past 17 seasons working at Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Arkansas and North Carolina State.
“I love competing at this top level,” Harris said. “Coach Schaefer lets me coach. He lets me do everything a head coach does. He’s prepared me, but in order for me to make that move, it would have to be the right situation.”
utfannforlife
1,000+ Posts
For some reason I can’t link it, but on the texassports website you can find her entire media availability and she gets a question at the 14:55 mark about getting the kids to play with an edge and she hits an absolute home run in her answer
Thanks for the heads up - usually they post those media sessions on the Texas Longhorns channel on YouTube and...
TempestHorn
500+ Posts
I hope this team and coaching staff get to be on the court this fall. I really like the vibe I'm getting from these assistants. I know several of us are worried Schaeffer could end up being Goestenkors 2.0, but I'm not getting that impression at all. It seems like they all know what they're getting in to and taking their previous recruiting ties and leveraging the fact they are now selling UT and Austin. I also am optimistic because IIRC Goestenkors and her staff did not pickup as many (or any) immediate commitments.
Still stuck in Starkville, new Texas women's staff keeps winning on recruiting trail
"And for some it was just a better institution, academically. So I think a lot of those kids feel like we’re in a better position for them."
Ooooooh...burn.
"And for some it was just a better institution, academically. So I think a lot of those kids feel like we’re in a better position for them."
Ooooooh...burn.
I don't know who "several of you" are, but I'm wondering why you would even clump Vic Schaefer and Goestenkors in the same category??? Vic Schaefer went to itty bitty Starkville, MS and took two teams to the NCAA championship game with ZERO McDonald's All Americans on his team. We had TEN at one time on our roster and couldn't even nip at Baylor's coat tails ..... This AIN'T Gail Goestenkors!!! This man and his staff can flat out coach AND recruit..... He didn't even need the most highly ranked players at Mississippi State because they actually DEVELOPED their players to their full potential... I ain't worried one itty bitty and neither should you be!!!!!
My friend in Durham has been a longtime WBB ticket holder and he said Gail used Duke's draw as a top school to get recruits and her only competition was Stanford for players. At Texas, she lost that draw and her coaching staff had no Texas contacts. Recruiting was terrible. And game coaching was worse. There is no way this coach and staff can be compared to GG.
Still stuck in Starkville, new Texas women's staff keeps winning on the recruiting trail
The San Antonio paper might be the best coverage on this team. Story says Vic is picky and does not make many offers.
The San Antonio paper might be the best coverage on this team. Story says Vic is picky and does not make many offers.
TempestHorn
500+ Posts
In ESPN's NCAAW today, they did an exercise of who would replace icons of WBB. I am not going to hazard a Baylor discussion but its there. However, it also included one on our friends at aggieland. And it included Johnny Harris. For your pleasure:
coach, mostly at elite academic schools, she would be a natural fit.
Texas A&M's Gary Blair
In the family: Kelly Bond-White, Texas A&M associate head coach...…...
Outsider: Johnnie Harris, Texas associate head coach. All right, outsider is a stretch here. But one likely succession plan disappeared for Texas A&M when Vic Schaefer accepted the job at Texas. Blair's former longtime lieutenant could still trade Austin for College Station, but it seems less likely. So why not take one of college basketball's most valuable assistants away from him? Harris said in the past that she's in no hurry to take a head coaching job, but the former WBCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year also said she felt as if she were ready for the right opportunity. A return to Texas A&M might just be it.
coach, mostly at elite academic schools, she would be a natural fit.
Texas A&M's Gary Blair
In the family: Kelly Bond-White, Texas A&M associate head coach...…...
Outsider: Johnnie Harris, Texas associate head coach. All right, outsider is a stretch here. But one likely succession plan disappeared for Texas A&M when Vic Schaefer accepted the job at Texas. Blair's former longtime lieutenant could still trade Austin for College Station, but it seems less likely. So why not take one of college basketball's most valuable assistants away from him? Harris said in the past that she's in no hurry to take a head coaching job, but the former WBCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year also said she felt as if she were ready for the right opportunity. A return to Texas A&M might just be it.
TempestHorn
500+ Posts
If you'd bothered to read my post rather than have your over the top hysterical reaction to it, you would know that I'm not asserting he will be Goestenkors 2.0. With any new coaching situation there are concerns and people can bring those up on a message board. I know recruiting was her downfall, I'm clearly stating that this coaching staff is not having those issues right out of the gate.
NOTE TO SELF: I guess prior to responding to Bobcat, I need to wait for him to calm down long enough to figure out what his response it actually going to be. I retract this post, the Bette Davis gif is hysterical and quite calm.
Last edited:
I was trying to be respectful to your "sensitive feelings"..... I was merely pointing out that it is unreasonable to have fears regarding Coach Schaefer's ability/inability to recruit considering what he did with far less talent than we have had on the 40 acres the past 7 years. He and his staff know how to DEVELOP to the fullest the potential in those he does recruit. He is not the same as Goestenkors, nor will he suffer from the same weaknesses she had in recruiting. If anything, I think he is going to now be able to get just about whatever he wants. Exciting times. Glad you liked the GIF.... One of my favorites.....
Sadly it’s hard to get to any new ground while sheltering in place (more or less) wondering if there will be a season in 20/21 and, if so, what that season will look like.
Fired up! 
I assume this could be called a 'non-traditional' path to coaching - from the Clarion Ledger:
COLUMBUS — Should the story begin with Johnnie Harris as a foster parent, the random conversation with Kay Yow or the note passed on the bus from Vic Schaefer asking if the tandem could win in Starkville?
Harris has made her way from a small-school volunteer to being named Assistant Coach of the Year last week. She’s the recruiter and developer of post stars like Teaira McCowan. She’s Schaefer’s associate head coach.
"We're family,” Schaefer said Tuesday, three days before Schaefer, Harris and Mississippi State participate in a second-straight Final Four.
But maybe the best place to start Harris’ story is with her in an Arkansas gym just trying to help a student in the neighborhood.
She was an administrative assistant at Arkansas-Little Rock, but she wanted to do more. The one thing she knew she could do was to get the most out of struggling kids.
Harris was the kind of person who would tell a troubled boy in the neighborhood that if he stayed out of trouble for a week she’d take him to his first college football game. She went from Department of Human Services employee to foster parent who’d always ask for the most intense kids.
So while working at UALR, she would find talented young high school athletes who didn’t have a path to play in college. They just needed to meet the right people. She’d take them to gyms, work out with them and arrange meetings with coaches. She wasn’t recruiting them. She was just trying to help.
One day she was introducing a girl to Arkansas-Fort Smith coach Louis Whorton. She made her case on why Whorton should consider the girl when he stopped her.
“Hold up, who are you?” he asked.
“I’m nobody,” she said. “I’m just here with this kid, just helping her get a scholarship. She’s a really good player and I want to help her.”
“I don’t know if she can play,” he countered, “but I do know that you have sold me on her. You would be a heck of a recruiter.”
Harris soon joined Whorton's staff, and her first recruiting class in Fort Smith — then a junior college — brought in four All-Americans that first year and two more who ended up being All-Americans.
Yow, the legendary former North Carolina State coach, was recruiting one of Fort Smith’s opponents when Yow and Harris started talking. They spoke for a while, then carried on.
Harris received a call from Yow two months later. She wanted Harris to join her staff. Yow, who died in 2009 from breast cancer, said she knew that day they spoke she wanted to hire her.
“You remind me a lot of me,” Yow said. “You have a soft voice but you’re intense. Don’t let anyone tell you that because you have a soft voice you can’t coach.”
Harris spent a year with Yow before going to Arkansas to help her sick parents. After another three years there, she joined Texas A&M. That’s where she started working with Schaefer.
The two had met back in her Fort Smith days, but it was as coworkers that the two really connected. She was primarily a recruiter, and Schaefer was the defensive gameplanner. Even when someone else did the scouting report, they reported to him.
She wanted to do more than recruit, so she started sitting in his office as he created his defensive game plans. He filled her in on his philosophies and how his defensive mind worked, and soon he was trusting her to do some scouting reports for him. He was in charge of player development, so she would follow him to watch him work with each position.
“He didn’t have to, and I know he was probably busy and I was probably in the way, but he took time to show me,” she said.
Harris is surely downplaying Schaefer's level of interest and belief in her because when it came time to decide if he wanted to take Mississippi State job, Harris was the person he went to, sliding a note on the bus asking if they could win in Starkville. He said Tuesday he wouldn’t have taken the job without her and said she’s the person who makes all the tough decisions when he’s not there.
“I can't say enough about Johnnie, what she means to me personally as well as professionally," Schaefer said.
She has that same kind of meaning to her players. She was the coach who knew of a raw but talented high school player named Teaira McCowan and heard she wasn’t going to be eligible for college basketball. She started calling McCowan every day and making sure she got her grades in order and giving her advice for how to study right.
McCowan’s mother, Tracy Nunn, joked Harris has taken her place as McCowan’s mother in Starkville.
Now, Harris is the Women’s College Basketball Association’s Division I Assistant Coach of the Year. She’s helping lead a team into a second-consecutive Final Four.
It can be easy to wonder if and when she will want to take her own chance at being a head coach. She and Schaefer discuss it all the time. She said he has gone out of his way to prepare her.
“I don’t want to be a head coach just to be a head coach,” she said. “I want to walk into a good situation that’s supportive like this one is where I know I’ll have everything I need to win at this level.”
COLUMBUS — Should the story begin with Johnnie Harris as a foster parent, the random conversation with Kay Yow or the note passed on the bus from Vic Schaefer asking if the tandem could win in Starkville?
Harris has made her way from a small-school volunteer to being named Assistant Coach of the Year last week. She’s the recruiter and developer of post stars like Teaira McCowan. She’s Schaefer’s associate head coach.
"We're family,” Schaefer said Tuesday, three days before Schaefer, Harris and Mississippi State participate in a second-straight Final Four.
But maybe the best place to start Harris’ story is with her in an Arkansas gym just trying to help a student in the neighborhood.
She was an administrative assistant at Arkansas-Little Rock, but she wanted to do more. The one thing she knew she could do was to get the most out of struggling kids.
Harris was the kind of person who would tell a troubled boy in the neighborhood that if he stayed out of trouble for a week she’d take him to his first college football game. She went from Department of Human Services employee to foster parent who’d always ask for the most intense kids.
So while working at UALR, she would find talented young high school athletes who didn’t have a path to play in college. They just needed to meet the right people. She’d take them to gyms, work out with them and arrange meetings with coaches. She wasn’t recruiting them. She was just trying to help.
One day she was introducing a girl to Arkansas-Fort Smith coach Louis Whorton. She made her case on why Whorton should consider the girl when he stopped her.
“Hold up, who are you?” he asked.
“I’m nobody,” she said. “I’m just here with this kid, just helping her get a scholarship. She’s a really good player and I want to help her.”
“I don’t know if she can play,” he countered, “but I do know that you have sold me on her. You would be a heck of a recruiter.”
Harris soon joined Whorton's staff, and her first recruiting class in Fort Smith — then a junior college — brought in four All-Americans that first year and two more who ended up being All-Americans.
Yow, the legendary former North Carolina State coach, was recruiting one of Fort Smith’s opponents when Yow and Harris started talking. They spoke for a while, then carried on.
Harris received a call from Yow two months later. She wanted Harris to join her staff. Yow, who died in 2009 from breast cancer, said she knew that day they spoke she wanted to hire her.
“You remind me a lot of me,” Yow said. “You have a soft voice but you’re intense. Don’t let anyone tell you that because you have a soft voice you can’t coach.”
Harris spent a year with Yow before going to Arkansas to help her sick parents. After another three years there, she joined Texas A&M. That’s where she started working with Schaefer.
The two had met back in her Fort Smith days, but it was as coworkers that the two really connected. She was primarily a recruiter, and Schaefer was the defensive gameplanner. Even when someone else did the scouting report, they reported to him.
She wanted to do more than recruit, so she started sitting in his office as he created his defensive game plans. He filled her in on his philosophies and how his defensive mind worked, and soon he was trusting her to do some scouting reports for him. He was in charge of player development, so she would follow him to watch him work with each position.
“He didn’t have to, and I know he was probably busy and I was probably in the way, but he took time to show me,” she said.
Harris is surely downplaying Schaefer's level of interest and belief in her because when it came time to decide if he wanted to take Mississippi State job, Harris was the person he went to, sliding a note on the bus asking if they could win in Starkville. He said Tuesday he wouldn’t have taken the job without her and said she’s the person who makes all the tough decisions when he’s not there.
“I can't say enough about Johnnie, what she means to me personally as well as professionally," Schaefer said.
She has that same kind of meaning to her players. She was the coach who knew of a raw but talented high school player named Teaira McCowan and heard she wasn’t going to be eligible for college basketball. She started calling McCowan every day and making sure she got her grades in order and giving her advice for how to study right.
McCowan’s mother, Tracy Nunn, joked Harris has taken her place as McCowan’s mother in Starkville.
Now, Harris is the Women’s College Basketball Association’s Division I Assistant Coach of the Year. She’s helping lead a team into a second-consecutive Final Four.
It can be easy to wonder if and when she will want to take her own chance at being a head coach. She and Schaefer discuss it all the time. She said he has gone out of his way to prepare her.
“I don’t want to be a head coach just to be a head coach,” she said. “I want to walk into a good situation that’s supportive like this one is where I know I’ll have everything I need to win at this level.”
Jacob Johnson
2,500+ Posts
Another thing Vic said from the article that I am really excited about is that Jazzmun Holmes will be joining his staff as a graduate assistant this upcoming season. She was a great guard under Vic & will without a doubt in my mind drastically contribute to the development of the guards.
Well, the DBO position is still open after 30+ days. Considering one of the primary responsibilities of the position is to plan/coordinate camps and those aren’t likely to happen this summer, I guess it’s not a high priority. Also responsible for coordinating team’s travel plans and that is still up in the air.
BBV_Horn
1,000+ Posts
GG never had ANY recruiting connections in Texas...not her fault, but it doomed her from the start...Vic has LOTS of Texas ties, from HS on up....he and his staff will be killin’ it in Texas recruiting...just killin’ it...Mulkey is shaking in her boots!!
TempestHorn
500+ Posts
GG never had ANY recruiting connections in Texas...not her fault, but it doomed her from the start...Vic has LOTS of Texas ties, from HS on up....he and his staff will be killin’ it in Texas recruiting...just killin’ it...Mulkey is shaking in her boots!!
Well even though he doesn't have a Texas home he does seem to have some room set aside in Mulkey's head; since she's already doing interviews about him and throwing shade on his Sam Houston days.
Jacob Johnson
2,500+ Posts
Lol please send the link.
I didn’t hear her interviews but during an interview with Vic recently someone did bring up that Mulkey has already been yapping. Vic laughed it off. I didn’t try to find the interviews with her because I don’t seek out headaches.
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