UCLA vs UConn, South Carolina vs Texas sets stage for Final Four
USA Today’s Meghan Hall previews the women’s Final Four teams that will be heading down to Tampa to compete for national championship.
Sports Seriously
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— After TCU fell to Texas 58-47 in the Elite Eight on Monday, some TCU players were doing cartwheels in the middle of the locker room. Their teammates were cheering them on, and the room was filled with an unexpected, deafening joy.
“We don’t have room for a roundoff!” someone shouted.
The emotions seemed to come from what they experienced throughout a magical season rather than what happened on Monday night. Despite having 11 transfers on the roster, the Horned Frogs grew into a squad anchored by friendship. They used that to their advantage, winning the Big 12 and reaching the Elite Eight for the first time.
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“We truly, truly are a sisterhood,” graduate guard Maddie Scherr said. “We are so, so tight.”
In 2022-23, the Horned Frogs went 1-17 in conference play. Last year, they improved to 21-12 overall, despite forfeiting two games due to injuries. They concluded this year with a program-record 34 wins.
They say their play and chemistry was buoyed by their shared hardship.
“We’ve been through so much adversity as people,” center Sedona Prince said. “We just love each other, we enjoy each other. I think it’s very special and rare, but I think God brought us all together, genuinely.”
All along this run, coach Mark Campbell felt the team was special. The squad had three players on the All-Big 12 First Team, but the Horned Frogs’ strength extended deeper than stat lines.
Almost every single player in the locker room spoke after Monday’s game, star guard Hailey Van Lith said.
“What makes this group so special was what was just unfolding in the locker room right now,” Campbell said in the postgame press conference. “The sisterhood that has been formed these past two years, and the stories we just shared in the locker room, is what this whole thing is about.”
The stories they shared in the locker room were ones of gratitude. The most upsetting thing for them was knowing that soon they will leave their team behind.
“The Elite Eight, obviously we are all upset this journey has come to an end,” senior guard Madison Conner said. “None of us want to leave each other. We’re like, ‘Can I pack you in my suitcase? Where are we going?’”
Cooper Burke is a student in the University of Georgia’s Sports Media Certificate program.
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