Texas women's basketball: Sydney Carter leaves Longhorns for Auburn assistant coaching job

For the first time in awhile, the Texas women's basketball program has a vacancy on its bench.

Auburn announced Tuesday that it has hired Sydney Carter, who has spent the past four seasons on Vic Schaeffer's staff at Texas, as an assistant coach.

"I am so excited and thankful to be joining Coach (Larry Vickers') staff and Auburn women's basketball," Carter said in a statement. "I am looking forward to hitting the ground running with Coach, his staff and team, complementing the system and standard he's building here at Auburn. The opportunity to learn and grow here is something I will take advantage of every day. War Eagle!"

Formerly a championship-winning point guard at Texas A&M and Aggies staffer, Carter came to Texas in 2022 to be the Longhorns' director of player development. She was promoted into an assistant coaching role ahead of the 2024-25 season. Among Carter's duties was working with Texas' point guards, and she was credited with helping Rori Harmon develop into the program's all-time leader in assists and steals.

"A lot of people think we're sisters for some reasons," Harmon said in April. "She's in my corner, always. She's always like, 'You've made me just such a better coach and person.' She doesn't understand how much she's meant to me. She works out with me. She's sacrificing her time to wake up early or stay after practice just so she can help me get to where I want to go."

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Carter, 35, whose interest in fashion and personality has also attracted a large following on social media, joins an Auburn team that went 15-17 in Vickers' first season. Back in January, Texas beat Auburn by 61 points in what was the most-lopsided loss in the Tigers' history.

Meanwhile, Texas will need to find a replacement for Carter more than three months after the season ended. Schaefer last had an assistant coach leave his program following the team's 2022-23 campaign.

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