Yesterday's game added a lot more evidence that Texas women's basketball might run the table in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. If you missed the game against Oregon, Madison Booker dropped a career-high 40 points.
If you have watched her career at Texas, this performance shouldn't surprise you at all.
With how Oregon was hanging with Texas in the first half of the game, someone on the Longhorns' roster needed to take over and help separate Texas from the Ducks. That's where Madison Booker entered the fold with her ability to be that player who can take over a game. She started making a lot of her shots, and the Ducks didn't have an answer for her. That is why the Longhorns finished the game with such a huge lead. If Booker didn't have the game that she had, the final score would have been a lot closer.
With her 40-point performance on Sunday, Booker is well on her way to becoming a Texas women's basketball legend. She now has the record for most points scored in an NCAA Tournament game by a Texas player. She's won so many accolades that I would need to take up the rest of this paragraph to list them all. She's going to be a big reason why the Longhorns might end up back in the Final Four again this season. Kentucky or West Virginia's coaches are already trying to figure out how to contain Booker.
When the opposing head coach mentions that you played like you earned her All-American award this season, that means you are a special player. She's the only player at Texas to have won three-straight All-American awards. With the way she commands the floor and attacks the basket, she might win another one next season as well. If I'm Booker's shoes right now, she might want to start considering looking at the WNBA for her next steps in her basketball career.
Yesterday's win is not the end of Booker's postseason heroics. Texas still has four more games to win if it wants to win the National Championship for Women's Basketball. I expect Booker will have more of these massive scoring performances as Texas continues its march to the title game. With the win against the Ducks, the Longhorns pack their bags and travel to Fort Worth, Texas, to take on the Wildcats or the Mountaineers in the Sweet 16. Don't be surprised if Booker drops another 40 points on either team.