Madison Booker first met Vic Schaefer when she was in middle school. The Texas women’s basketball coach followed her career throughout high school, where he even was present when Booker won a state championship.
Now, he’s watched her become the SEC Player of the Year and lead the Longhorns to their first Final Four in over 20 years. Schaefer’s investment in Booker has paid dividends that basketball coaches crave — a chance to win a national championship.
Averaging 18.8 points in her four NCAA Tournament games this year, Booker helped guide No. 1 seed Texas to a 58-47 victory Monday night over second-seeded TCU. The Horned Frogs won the program’s first Big 12 regular season title and made their first-ever Elite Eight appearance.
Schaefer has been at Texas for five seasons. Texas had last made the Final Four in 2003. At Mississippi State, his previous job, the team reached the 2018 Final Four, losing to South Carolina after ending Connecticut’s 111-game winning streak in the semifinals. Booker admires what he has accomplished with the Longhorns and how he coaches the team.
“(The Final Four) means a lot to us but I think it means a lot more to coach Schaefer,” she said. “He wants us to be a great team and he puts in the work. For us to kinda come out today especially and play this great TCU team, great offense, and play defense, that’s the name of the game for him is defense. Defense wins games. I just think that means a lot to him. I’m happy to be part of that and to help him get to the Final Four.”
Booker, 6-foot-1 sophomore forward, led Texas with 18 points and six rebounds, playing 38 minutes and showcasing her skill set. “I’m having fun with it now,” Booker said. “March Madness, you’re supposed to have fun.”
Finally breaking through to a Final Four after making the Elite Eight in four of the last five seasons? Certainly fun. Eliminating the player who eliminated Texas in the Round of 32 in 2023, the only time in the last five years the Longhorns haven’t progressed? Also, fun.
Then playing at Louisville, TCU star Hailey Van Lith tallied 21 points in that 2023 game, going 8-of-15 from the floor as the Longhorns had no answer in a game they lost by over 20 points. Two years later, Van Lith, a 5-foot-9 senior point guard, was in a prove-it mode. After one season at LSU, she transferred to TCU for this season. In leading the Horned Frogs to a magical season, she was a point producer and assist maker.
Against the Longhorns’ stifling defense, Van Lith missed 12 of 15 shots and didn’t have a field goal in the second half. Van Lith’s worth shooting performance of the season was courtesy of Texas point guard Rori Harmon. The 5-foot-6 senior, who suffered an ACL injury in December of 2023, shadowed TCU’s leading scorer most of the game. Of Van Lith’s 17 points, 10 came at the free throw line. Harmon helped jumpstart Texas’ offense, scoring 11 of her 13 total points in the first quarter.
“I’m so proud of myself and proud of my team to get to this moment,” Harmon said in the postgame interview, fighting back tears. “I would say, you know, team defense always is the number one thing, trying to limit (Van Lith’s) touches as much we could. She’s a three-level scorer and a great basketball player.”
“Incredible defensive effort,” Schaefer said. “Rori Harmon did a great job on her today.”
The Horned Frogs, who were averaging just 12 turnovers a game, turned it over 21 times (seven by Van Lith). TCU shot 26.7 percent, making just 12 field goals. More turnovers than field goals is a recipe for defeat.
Texas’ ball pressure, size, and grit were all factors in the win; other than Van Lith, no other player on the Horned Frogs scored in double digits, and the rest of their starting rotation was held to 23 points combined.
“Our press was really critical. Even if we didn’t get a turnover, we made it hard for them to get it in,” Schaefer said. “When they got it in, they had to try to figure out how to run some offense. We had them pushed out on the floor quite well.”
Kyla Oldacre, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, played just two minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, but her size and physicality was a difference maker in the second half as she held TCU’s Sedona Prince, 6-foot-7 senior center, to just four points and nine rebounds. Prince fouled out with 6:32 remaining. Oldacre also provided an offensive boost, scoring all nine of her points in the second half.
Texas’ win was a full team effort — Booker’s offensive charge, Oldacre’s two-way play, Harmon’s defense, and support on both sides of the ball from Taylor Jones, a 6-foot-4 senior who finished with seven points, six rebounds, four blocks and a steal.
The Longhorns played their game — they outscored TCU 24-8 in the paint, tallied 17 points off turnovers that their defense forced, and only committed eight turnovers of their own. They moved the ball with intention, took calculated shots, and used their size and athleticism to their advantage.
“They are good enough,” Schaefer said. “I knew they were good enough. I knew we had what it took. Those kids played their guts out.”
Good enough to beat TCU, and good enough to beat South Carolina, the opponent they’ll face in the Final Four. Earlier in the season they ended South Carolina’s 57-game SEC regular-season win streak in a 66-62 victory.
That win however isn’t the simple blueprint to a national championship — the Longhorns found themselves stifled by the Gamecocks’ defense in the SEC Tournament title game, losing by 19. Meeting South Carolina for a fourth time this season, with a 1-2 record against the Gamecocks, the Longhorns have their biggest challenge yet ahead of them.
The tools to be a title-winning team are already in Texas’ reservoir — they lost just three games this season, two of them to the Gamecocks, in their debut season in the SEC. Booker’s versatility and scoring ability, the post presence of Oldacre and Jones, and Harmon’s defense were all part of the plan that saw the Longhorns win 35 games this season — a program record.
