'I'll be ready': Rori Harmon eyeing big comeback

AUSTIN (KXAN) — When Rori Harmon would go to the grocery store soon after she tore her ACL, it didn't quite look like normal.

"I rode around on this electric scooter," said Harmon. "Like a sit-down one. Kind of like the ones at the grocery store. I actually witnessed going to the grocery store during my injury and I had to actually sit down in one of those chairs."

Harmon suffered the injury in late December 2023. Texas women's basketball was unbeaten at the time. Losing the rest of her junior season was highly emotional for the star point guard.

"First, second months of it ... it was actually terrible," she said. "You just feel like you can't do anything on your own. It's really hard mentally. You can't even talk about it yet."

She worked essentially as a coach with the Longhorns as Vic Schaefer's bunch earned the top seed in the NCAA tournament. Throughout the season, Harmon rehabbed and started to shift her mentality.

"I think right around the time where you're able to walk and get off your crutches, I felt this energy change," she said.

The difficulty of having a star suffer an ACL injury is nothing new for Texas. Forward Aaliyah Moore had the same fate the previous season. Harmon relied heavily on Moore and her other teammates who'd been through the same injury.

"I think the people who have experienced it. For example, [Aaliyah Moore], [Jordana Codio], Shaylee [Gonzales]. Those were the ones that really understood truly. They could relate."

Dealing with the mental and physical anguish that this injury brings along, Harmon has worked to find a silver lining.

"Now in the game, now in these tough situations [where] coach is on you and you're losing maybe, I've done something tough already," she said. "I've gotten through that so I can get through this."

With Texas expected to be one of the best teams in the country next season, a lot is expected of Harmon and the team. She says the idea of taking a year off never entered her mind.

"I don't have a date. Not even the surgeon can tell me," she said. "Just know I'll be ready. That's the answer I have."