Following Texas women’s basketball’s uninspired 86-70 loss to Vanderbilt in February, head coach Vic Schaefer publicly called out his squad. The challenge led to some hard conversations between the Longhorns.
“We had to come back to drawing board. What’s our goals for the season? What do we want out of this season too? What are we doing?” junior forward Madison Booker recalled to USA TODAY Sports. “Our veteran leader, Rori (Harmon) stepped up and said, ‘The center’s the center here, so we need to do better.’”
Booker said the reset “got us clicking at the right moment.” That’s not an understatement. Texas has responded with ten consecutive wins, including an SEC championship victory over South Carolina, and two wins in the 2026 Women’s NCAA Tournament. Texas is now one win away from their third consecutive Elite Eight appearance.
No. 5 Kentucky stands in their way.
40 POINTS, 0 MISTAKES: Madison Booker dominates as Texas women advance to Sweet 16
Booker, however, enters the Sweet 16 round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament March Madness round extra motivated. Booker reached the Elite Eight her freshman year and advanced to the Final Four her sophomore season, before falling short of the ultimate goal of winning Texas’ first national title since 1986 each time.
“Just keep pushing,” said Booker, who dropped a career-high 40 points in Texas’ second-round win over No. 8 Oregon. “It definitely pushes you a lot just because you know how far you can get, the work you put in and you know what you could have did better those last two years… we learned from it.”
Booker finished with eight rebounds and five assists in Texas’ second-round win, but the biggest assist has come from TurboTax. Booker spoke to USA TODAY Sports ahead of March Madness through her partnership with the company, which helps student-athletes navigate the tax side of NIL earnings to allow the All-American to “just focus on the court, more than I focus on my taxes,” Booker joked.
Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q: Texas will be able to stay in the state for the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight (in the Fort Worth regional 3 bracket). How big of an advantage is that for you guys to stay so close to home?
Booker: “It’s a big advantage. I mean, our fans are amazing and I’m happy that we can reward them with staying in Texas too. So they won’t have to travel far to come see us play… I mean we play hard. I guess we get the No. 3 seed to stay in Texas, so that’s all kind our hard work.”
Q: Texas has been through a gauntlet this season and the SEC, especially with your schedule, how has that prepared you for the tournament?
Booker: “The SEC I think is one of the best conferences in the world for basketball, for sure. But I feel like other conferences are so different from the SEC. SEC is much more physical and a little quicker… I feel like if we’ve been through the war already. When we play teams outside of SEC, we can definitely use the physicality and the speed to our advantage, pressure the ball more. We’ve had games where we had to play some good defense and we’ve done it before. So we have the film, we have the losses. We’ve learned from that of course. And I think we just can use that to our advantage.”
Q: During the SEC Tournament semifinal game against Ole Miss game, there was a clip of you in the huddle, speaking to your teammates. Do you feel like your leadership has evolved over the course of the season?
Booker: “I think it has. I watched Rori (Harmon) a lot, just being a leader and I just kind of stood there. So I kind of just found myself coming to conferences, be more vocal with my team. They already told me that they would listen to me. So yeah, I definitely just used it for positive vibes, just like an extra push. So the Ole Miss game (on March 7), I just felt like Ole Miss had a great… fourth quarter. And my whole message to him was just, ‘Hey, we’re good. We’re still by two. Let’s settle down. Let’s think about what happened and let’s reset and move forward.’ And I think that’s just my whole mentality with being a leader. It is just a game right now. Let’s just keep playing. Let’s not turn into many mistakes.”
Q: How has it been stepping into that role of being a more vocal leader if it hasn’t always come natural. How have you felt comfortable doing that?
Booker: “It hurts my vocal chords, honestly. I’m not a big talker at all, but I can tell when I do talk, it definitely spreads throughout the team. It is higher energy, it’s much more talking. I think we started having fun with then everybody started talking. Practice is fun, games are fun. I mean, we’re winning. I think we’re clicking the right times, we’re making shots, we’re playing great defense. But yeah, it kind of just changes when it’s just not one person talking with more than one person talking.”
Q: You and Rori (Harmon) have formed a one-two punch this season and she’s playing in her final March Madness tournament. What has she meant to this team and what do you think she’ll bring to a WNBA team?
Booker: “Oh my gosh. She has meant so much to this program and university. I think Rori (Harmon’s) standard, the standard she has for herself on defense especially, I don’t think anybody else in the country has that standard. She wants to guard the best player… If you’re the best player on the team, if you say you’re best friend in the country, she wants to guard you. And when I came here, I looked up to her because her mentality, the standard here, her work ethic is off the charts. And I think that’s something that people really don’t see. They just see her playing defense and her getting steals and breaking records, but she’s literally the energy of this team. When she goes, we go. When her defense is on point, I think we’re one of the best teams in the country.
But for a WNBA team, I think people would love to have her. I mean, she’s literally a point guard. Point God, I would say. She could do anything on the court. She can get your team going. She can play defense and she just don’t get herself going, but she has a team going. That’s the impact she has as a player. But I think any W team would love to have her.”
Q: What has Coach Vic Schaefer meant to you guys during this time?
Booker: “He’s teaching you life. Life is sometimes not fair. He teaches about hard work, hard get you anything you want in life with basketball, but you’re always in the gym. The game will reward you some type of way. But yeah, he is those things. He works hard. He has a passion for the game. He never takes a day off and it’s rewarding him. I think he might be a Hall of Fame coach one day, honestly, for college basketball. But yeah, he’s meant a lot. He’s taught a lot of lessons. My favorite phrase from him is that’s how life is y’all and that is how life is. But no, he’s meant a lot. He’s a great coach. I don’t regret coming here at all. And hopefully I can win him a national championship.”
Q: What would it mean to bring a national championship to Texas for the first time? And like you said, 40 years, what would that mean to you?
Booker: “A lot. I would love to see 2026 up there on the practice wall or in the Moody Center. It would just speed a cherry on top. I feel like we worked so hard this season. I feel like y’all watch us play and y’all like, gosh, you didn’t even get tired. I was pressing 40 minutes. But I don’t think y’all see how hard we work out. Our conditioning days are before the season. How many times we’re in the gym, how many hours we’re in the gym. We are working so hard just for that end goal. And I think it would just be a sign or a pat on the back, like, “We did it, y’all.”
Q: You became the first athlete to sign with Kevin Durant as collaboration with Nike and Texas. What was it like working with Durant as someone who’s literally been in your shoes?
Booker: “It is still surreal. I can’t believe that really happened… Signing with my favorite player, his shoe deal and stuff like that, that means a lot. I love wearing KDs. I wear ’em all the time. But yeah, just for him to also take notice and pick me before his starter, it means a lot. I have no words honestly. It is a lot.”
Q: Has Kevin Durant given you any tips or advice for the tournament or anything that you want to use?
Booker: “His words is just go take it. They go give it to you. Go take it. That’s literally what he just said the other day to me.”
Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at chenderson@gannett.com and follow her on X at@CydHenderson.
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