The Texas Longhorns are projected to have yet another banner season, but over the last few years, those seasons have repeatedly ended without an actual banner going up in the rafters. That has been the case despite the fact that the Horns have boasted one of the best women's college basketball players in the entire country: forward Madison Booker.
Now, Booker is flying toward the start of her final collegiate season, and while expectations for the Horns are higher, the expectations for their star forward should be even higher.
Over the last three years, there has been the expected improvement in Booker's stats, but we haven't seen an improvement in how the Horns have performed overall.
Texas finished with a Final Four loss in the past two seasons, and actually took a step backwards in 2026 after winning the SEC regular-season championship in 2025, but finishing third in the conference one year later.
One of the most notable slip-ups in Texas's Final Four loss to the eventual National Champion UCLA Bruins last season came from Booker's performance in the game.
She finished the game with just six points, seven rebounds, and one steal, shooting an abysmal 13% from the field. Of course, the rest of the team fell well short of the Texas standard, and the Horns fell 51-44 in their second straight Final Four loss.
Madison Booker has the right weapons to take Longhorns to the National Championship
Booker was the Longhorns' only five-star recruit in head coach Vic Schaefer's 2023 recruiting class, and it's beyond time for her to make the kind of five-star impact she has the ability to. Not to mention that since she first set foot on the 40 Acres, Schaefer has added seven more five-star recruits to the team.
This year, Schaefer brought in Addison Bjorn, Brihanna Crittendon, Aaliah Spaight, and Joyce-Isi Etute to add the talent and depth that Texas has always needed. Now, the Horns have those five-star newcomers that it has been lacking on a year-to-year basis.
Alongside the returns of point guard Bryanna Preston and beloved sixth-man Sarah Graves, it increasingly looks like Booker officially has every weapon she needs to take Texas to the next level: the National Championship.
That was highlighted by Texas's latest exhibition game against the very Bruins who knocked them out of March Madness last spring. The Horns demolished UCLA in an 81-64 victory for Texas that was headlined by a team-leading 21-point performance by, you guessed it, Madison Booker.
Booker will have one more chance to solidify her preseason hype in the Longhorns' final preseason exhibition game on Thursday, Oct. 29, as Texas hosts the Baylor Bears.
Then, Booker and the Horns will tipoff their regular season schedule with a home game against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
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