Big news from Texas Longhorns.
The following content is copied from Texas' 247sports site.
Texas sophomore guard Celeste Taylor, the Longhorns' second-leading scorer this past season, is in the transfer portal, Horns247 has confirmed.
Taylor, whose 12.3 points per game were second behind UT 6-foot-5 center Charli Collier's 19.0 points per game, scored a career-high 24 points in Texas' upset of third-seeded UCLA in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to reach the Sweet 16. Taylor followed that up with 15 points and 11 rebounds in UT's upset of second-seeded Maryland to reach the Elite Eight.
Taylor was just 3-of-18 shooting (eight points) in UT's Elite Eight loss to South Carolina.
Taylor, a native of Long Island, N.Y., who has talked about how much she has missed being around her family, averaged 32 minutes per game for Texas in 2021 and led the team in steals (60) for first-year coach Vic Schaefer. Taylor shot just 35.3 percent from the floor and 29.7 percent from 3-point range and had the second-most turnovers (71) for UT this past season behind Collier's 85.
Schaefer has one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming to Texas this fall. The Longhorns will be adding three top 25 prospects in the 2021 recruiting class — 6-foot-1 forward Aaliyah Moore (No. 6, according to HoopGurlz), 5-foot-6 point guard Rori Harmon (No. 10) and 5-foot-8 point guard Kyndall Hunter (No. 24). Texas also has signed two top junior college prospects in Kobe King Hawea, a 5-11 guard/forward, and Femme Sikuzani, a 6-5 center, each of whom will have three years of eligibility.
Texas reached its first Elite Eight since 2016 under Schaefer despite having the seventh-ranked offense in the 10-team Big 12. Schaefer said Texas was able to reach the Elite Eight thanks to buy-in it took defensively from UT players this year.
“I just think that we're different. We're a different coaching staff. We recruited two of these kids — Kyra (Lambert) and Lauren (Ebo) — so it's a different way of doing things, and it is way different probably if you asked most of them,”
Schaefer said in a Horns247 exclusive interview on The Flagship Podcast following the upset of Maryland in the Sweet 16.
“I think what you're seeing right now is just a total buy in. I think our kids are bought in to what we do and how we do it. We have a saying in our in our program: It’s not what we do but how we do it that separates us from the rest of the country. I think what you're seeing is our kids, our team buying in to a way of doing things, to a way of life, to a way of accountability that we try to instill in them and then hold them to the standard."
Schaefer said his team's confidence began to soar as players saw their hard work paying off on the court in March.
“This is why we're on the track at 6 a.m. in the morning in August and September conditioning instead of 1 o'clock in the gym when it's 70 degrees and sunny outside," Schaefer told Horns247. "You're not going to get challenged and you're not developing any toughness when it's comfortable.
“When you can learn to be uncomfortable and live uncomfortable, that's when you're really going to go to another level as not only successful in life but as an athlete. And I think what these kids have learned is they've learned that. They're getting it, and it's been a lot of fun to be a part of.”
