Senior Day for Texas women’s basketball was sentimental for Longhorns

With Mississippi State at Moody Center, the Texas women’s basketball team switched things up Sunday.

In the moments ahead of its home game against the Bulldogs, Texas announced that it would be using a different starting lineup. Senior Kyla Oldacre had been tabbed as UT’s starting center while junior Breya Cunningham would be coming off the bench. This marked the first time since a Dec. 21 trip to South Dakota State that Cunningham hadn’t started alongside Rori Harmon, Madison Booker, Jordan Lee and Justice Carlton.

In No. 4 Texas’ 92-42 win over Mississippi State, Oldacre went on to score four points, grab four rebounds and play 18 minutes. Meanwhile, Cunningham had a team-high 12 rebounds while also scoring four points over her 22-minute shift.

After the game, Texas coach Vic Schaefer said the edit to his starting lineup was partially ceremonial. Sunday was UT’s Senior Day, and he wanted to give Oldacre a chance to start in front of her family and friends.

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But Schaefer stated that the start was also deserved. Throughout this season, the 6-foot-6 Oldacre has flourished in a role that uses her and Cunningham more as complementary centers than as a starter and backup. Oldacre entered Sunday averaging 10.6 points per game while leading the Longhorns in rebounding and blocks. In Thursday’s 93-62 win at Arkansas, Oldacre contributed 13 points, 10 rebounds and six steals.

“It was Senior Day, and Kyla, to me, she’s worked at it, she’s earned that right,” Schaefer said. “I just wanted to reward her for it, but she’s been playing well. She just affects the game in a lot of different ways.”

Sunday marked the second start of Oldacre’s season and fourth start of her two-year Texas tenure. What was her reaction to getting to do the game-opening jump ball?

“I’m here to do my job, play basketball and do my part,” Oldacre said.

MORE: Kyla Oldacre isn’t starting, and she’s OK with that

An Ohio native who was a top-25 prospect in the 2022 recruiting cycle, Oldacre played at Miami for the first two years before entering the transfer portal. Schaefer has often told the story about how Oldacre requested that he put her through a workout during her official visit to Texas, which was something he had never done before with someone he was recruiting. On Sunday, Oldacre explained why she asked for that workout.

“Because it’s my second rodeo,” Oldacre said. “My first rodeo, as you saw, I left. So now it’s my second rodeo. I don’t want to go to three schools and all of a sudden, try to redshirt and transfer again. I wanted this to be my forever home choice. So I wanted to work out and see how it will be here at the school, and how I could grow in my position to reach my goals.”

While Oldacre and Harmon’s day started alongside Booker, Carlton and Lee, it ended with those two seniors getting to play alongside classmates Sarah Graves, Ashton Judd and Teya Sidberry. With 4:43 left in the blowout, Texas got all five of its seniors on the floor at the same time.

The five seniors played together for two minutes and 17 seconds before Schaefer began to pull them individually in front of an announced crowd of 10,705. Having set the school’s all-time assists and steals records during her five years of college, Harmon is the mainstay of UT’s senior class. Graves originally joined the team as a walk-on ahead of the 2022-23 season. Like Oldacre in 2024, Sidberry (Boston College) and Judd (Missouri) joined the Longhorns this past offseason as transfers.

Sunday marked the first-ever time that all five seniors got to play together. They were outscored by a 5-2 margin by Mississippi State during those 137 seconds — Sidberry scored the senior lineup’s lone basket – but the scoreboard was of little consequence to the veteran Longhorns.

“I told Jordan (Lee) I was scared I was gonna air-ball because I was so excited to be on the court with them,” Graves said. “It was just pure happiness. I think you could see the smiles at all of our faces. We all really love each other. This is definitely the closest team I’ve been a part of. Very sentimental, and just a lot of happiness.”

Added Judd: “It was very sentimental. I’m just grateful to have this group.”