Why Complacency Is The Enemy, Not The Opponent

If you're a Texas fan right now, there's a lot to be celebrating. The defense has been on fire. The freshmen have looked strong right out of the gate, headlined by star Cari Spears. The team has proven themselves to be tough in the face of pressure. They have already built a strong resume towards earning a top-4 spot to host a regional by the end of the season. But if all you had was a look at the Texas practice gym, you wouldn't know any of that.

The gym has not lost the slightest bit of intensity at any point during their stellar 5-0 start to the season. Now don't get me wrong, this team is not afraid to celebrate their victories, especially as dramatic as they've been recently. But practice is about getting 1% better every single day no matter what is happening on game days. The coaching staff holds its players to a very high standard, and they know there is still a ton of room for improvement for this team throughout the season. As the saying goes, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse.

According to Jerritt Elliott, Texas doesn't think of themselves as a 5-0 team. Their success is defined by what they continue to do throughout the season, not what they've already done. There are a lot of strong teams out there in the NCAA, and thinking of yourself as an undefeated beast can make that hubris come crashing down quickly. Texas has always been a team with a big target on their back, but that target is only growing and growing from the start this team has had. Yet another top-10 team is set to match up with the Horns on Sunday, and Arizona State will be absolutely fired up to walk into Gregory Gym and try to steal a win.

And that's the thing about this schedule, there are no days off. The Longhorns are gearing up for their 3rd consecutive top-10 matchup and their 4th in 6 matches. It's an intentional decision to throw this team into the fire to start the season. Assistant Coach Reily Buechler-Canter says "I like the risk." It's a tradeoff for how hard you decide to schedule your non-conference.

There's always the downside of fatigue, both physical and mental. It also doesn't allow the team the practice new things in-game and take risks against weaker opponents. But for Canter, the upside is much more significant, saying "I'd rather be mentally prepared, put our freshman through the gauntlet, and see how they can perform... I'd rather push them hard and know that it's going to be like that at the end of the road rather than just make us feel good going into conference play." And we've talked about how this team will only get better throughout the year, and the schedule has played a role in that. Canter adds "I don't think that we would have seen this character development by our girls" if it weren't for the challenges they've already faced.

Even though the season has started as well as any Texas fan could've hoped for, the team refuses to let that dictate their emotions. The coaching staff and the players have a continuous hunger to get better and every day in practice is a battle.