Rori Harmon didn’t want to be stuck riding an exercise bike during practice. She desperately wanted to be on the basketball court. But the Texas point guard had no choice. Before the start of the season, she had come dangerously close to fracturing a bone in her right foot from overuse. And rest, she was told, was paramount for a full recovery.
“Usually, if I hurt myself or injure myself, it’s something you can work through off and on in practice,” Harmon says. “Limit your time. But it was like, I could only sit down. I couldn’t even walk in my bare feet.”
This wasn’t the way Harmon had envisioned her sophomore year unfolding. As a freshman, she helped lead Texas to a 29-7 record, a Big 12 tournament championship and an Elite Eight appearance in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, and she averaged 11.4 points and five assists per game. She was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, and her performance in the conference tournament earned her national recognition and an MVP award.
Heading into the 2022-2023 season, Harmon’s expectations were high. Despite already having high energy and endurance on the court, she had worked hard over the summer to get even stronger and faster — adding muscle and increasing her quickness. The team itself was meshing as a whole. But a couple of…
