The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Harmon looks to leave her mark on Women's Basketball program history
11.13.2025 | Women's Basketball
Senior point guard is closing in on the Texas career assist record.
By Victoria Gambino
Starting guard for The University of Texas women's basketball team, Rori Harmon, prepares for her last season as a Longhorn and plans to leave an impact. As a fifth-year player Harmon has been with Texas all five seasons.
"My loyalty remains here for sure," Harmon said. "I'm always gonna be a Texas Longhorn."
During Harmon's junior year at UT she sustained a season-ending ACL injury forcing her to watch from the sidelines. Over the past two years since then she has recovered and is back to playing. When asked about if we saw her full version last season she said a quick no.
"I feel really good right now," Harmon said. "Last year I really didn't feel like myself."
She went on to talk about when recovering from this injury she wasn't able to move the same way she usually is. She mentioned that she has such fast twitches while playing her body wasn't able to keep up with what she wanted to do and having to wear a knee brace also restricted her movement.
Recovery for Harmon wasn't just physical though she had to be mentally prepared. While recovering from this injury she focused on self improvement daily.
"Comparing myself to myself from before the injury, I think that's why I was able to recover so fast because I was trying so hard to be better than I was the day before," Harmon said.
Speaking about the team, last year they made it to the Final Four which hasn't been done for Texas women's basketball since 2003. But coming into this year they have a brand new roster with seven out of 13 current returning players; Harmon, Madison Booker, Bryanna Preston, Kyla Oldacre, Sarah Graves, Justice Carlton and Jordan Lee. That means six new players joined the team this year and according to Harmon there's a chip on our shoulder, and we have an edge.
Texas was ranked No. 1 in the Southeastern Conference coaches poll and No. 4 in the Associated Press Preseason top-25 poll. After losing to South Carolina in the Final Four last year Harmon mentioned the importance of the learning process.
"You want to learn from the wins more than anything but you learn from both wins and losses," Harmon said. "I'm grateful that the coaches selected us preseason No. 1. I have a lot of respect for all the coaches and players in this conference."
Harmon believes that with these new transfers and incoming freshmen it brings a new energy to the team and expressed how the game can be more fun with these new additions. She mentioned how having more shooters on the team can help stretch the floor and it gives their team something more to add, which also gives the teams they play something extra to worry about.
To continue on with the team dynamic, one thing that Harmon said that helps her personal leadership with the team and also the team chemistry is talking to her teammates.
"To be a leader you have to really get to know your teammates and talk to them, get to know them off the court, figure out how they like to be led," she said. Doing all these things goes a long way because what we do isn't that easy."
Harmon has such an impact on this team and she shows up everyday whether it's big games or just practice. She has earned the respect of her teammates.
"Rori is my partner in crime," Preston said. "She is very competitive and it pushes me to play even harder. She is playing extremely hard and with confidence and I'm grateful to be able to learn from her."
Coming into her final season Harmon is in line to break the all-time assist record for Texas women's basketball. She currently ranks No. 2 all-time with 747 assists and is 30 away from breaking the record. Harmon has started 119 out of the 121 games she has played at Texas and will no doubt leave a lasting legacy.
"When people hear my name, I want them to think of someone who played really hard, every game and left it all on the court," Harmon said. "I hope they see the passion in me through the joy I have for the game and that I excelled both on offense and defense."
Harmon is thrilled for this upcoming season and knows it will be a challenge to achieve the team's goals.
"Everyone is truly bought into the fact that we are trying to get one percent better every day," Harmon said "We all have the same goals and are dedicated to achieving them."
