March Madness: Madison Booker boosts top-seed Texas to best season in 20 years

By Canadian Press on March 17, 2025.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Madison Booker was a tall, long-armed, sweet-shooting seventh grader in Mississippi when she started getting recruiting attention from college coaches.

Among them, then-Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer. He would eventually head to Texas, but always kept a firm eye on the talented youngster draining fade-away jumpers back in Ridgeland.

Booker eventually signed with Schaefer at Texas, where she has delivered on the expectations that come with being one of the nation’s elite recruits. After leading the Longhorns to the Elite Eight as a freshman last season, Booker has pushed them to heights the program hasn’t seen in more than 20 years.

The first preseason Associated Press All-American in Texas history was the Southeastern Conference player of the year as the Longhorns won a share of the SEC championship in their first year in the league. Texas earned its first No. 1 ranking since 2004, and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.

Texas (31-3) will open the tournament at home Saturday against the winner of High Point vs. William & Mary.

A great player living up to their promise can sound easy. Not quite, Schaefer said.

“It’s easy when you’re picked fourth or fifth. It’s easy when you’re not talked about,” Schaefer said. “But to be preseason (All-American) and then to go live it, getting everybody’s best shot, and you’re the first person talked about in the scouting report. That’s the most difficult thing to do. She did it.”

Booker, now a 6-1 sophomore, said she was ready for the expectations put on her this year.

“People are coming for you, they are trying to test you,” Booker said. “You can’t let that mess with you … This whole year, I just kept my head down and kept working, learning from each and every game that we won or lost.”

Booker’s variety of shot making, rebounding and passing still includes a includes a sort of ‘aw-shucks’ approach to her game and her success. After learning she was SEC player of the year, Booker told reporters she would have voted for someone else, then made fun of herself when she started talking so fast she stumbled over her words.

“The most humble kid on the planet,” Schaefer said.

Opponents aren’t fooled. They’ve been watching Booker take over games since she arrived on campus, including putting up 20 points in a rout of UConn with all her offensive moves on display.

An injury to point guard Rori Harmon soon pushed Booker out of her comfort zone when Schaefer put the ball in her hands.

With Booker running point, Texas won 33 games last season, the most for the program since the 1985-86 national championship team won 34, and advanced to the Elite Eight. Booker averaged 16.5 points and five rebounds that season and was the first freshman to win Big 12 player of the year.

Harmon returned this season, allowing Booker to slide back into her normal, creative role off the ball. She said she also slimmed down after her freshman season, improving her diet and cutting out the sweets.

The result was a leaner, quicker, more durable player who averages 16.2 points and 6.6 rebounds over 31 minutes per game. And Booker does it in a Texas offense that largely ignores 3-point shooting. Texans ranks last in the SEC in attempts this season with just 110.

Booker is a good long-range shooter at 44% but she seldom looks for shots out there. Her 25 made-3-pointers are less than half the production of other elite scorers like UConn’s Paige Bueckers (56), USC’s JuJu Watkins (62) and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo (59).

There have been a couple of stumbles. In Texas’ two losses to South Carolina, which included the SEC championship game, the Gamecocks game-planned to stop her, and held Booker to 17 total points. She didn’t score in the first quarter of the SEC title game, and finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Those two games were also Texas’ two lowest-scoring games of the year.

“That (first) game I felt like I let my team down, not just not scoring or not shooting well, but more of I could have done more to rebound and crash the boards, could have done more to get assists … could have been a better leader,” Booker said.

After that loss, Texas went on a 15-game win streak that included a payback for the Gamecocks: a 66-62 Texas win that ended South Carolina’s 57-game regular-season win streak in the SEC. Booker had 20 points and 11 rebounds that day.

“From that game, it changed the whole mindset of I want to be an all around player,” Booker said. “I want to be there for the team every day.”

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Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press