Texas Longhorns’ Rori Harmon Reacts To Paige Bueckers Winning National Title
AUSTIN – As Paige Bueckers closed the door on her UCONN career with a national championship win, Texas Longhorns star point guard Rori Harmon looked on, not in jealousy, but in inspiration. Harmon and Bueckers have similar college paths, as Bueckers also missed a season with a torn ACL and chose to return for her fifth year, and in that season, led the Huskies to a national title.
Harmon, who recently announced her intent to take her fifth year and return to Texas, hopes to lead Texas to a national championship after reaching the Final Four this year, the program’s first in 22 years.
“Things like that just make me feel so warm inside, I’m so happy for her and her team and Connecticut to just do that, and I’m glad they were able to do that in her last year,” Harmon said. “When you go through these types of injuries, and the ones that take you out for a really long time, you have some type of urgency. It’s more than what it was before you got injured for it. Unfortunately, that’s kind of how it works.”
Harmon said she is inspired by how Bueckers was able to come back from her injury in such dominant fashion. Sharing the experience of having to sit out a season is something that many players have and something that Harmon was able to voice.
She shared how even after being back, the expectations are so high and they can weigh on someone unfairly, but she’s so happy to see someone who went through the same thing she did succeed.
“When you get taken out of the game for that long, you can come back like you always want to beat everybody that you play, it’s almost like you’re just mad, but you’re not mad,” Harmon said. “It’s just one of those things where you’re just like, ‘I’m back, I’m better. Let’s get this job done.’ And so to see her do that, and especially in her last year, it was super cool. That would be great to do that here at the University of Texas and but yeah, just to see so many players going through, what I went I through with my ACL, and to see them come back and be better, it’s so inspirational and very motivating for me.”
Now, Harmon will return to a loaded Texas roster that is only losing two starters. With Final Four experience under their belt, the Longhorns are looking ahead to the major goal of next season, winning a national championship.
