There may be some new faces around them, but for each team, their star player is the same one who got them to the Final Four last season. For Texas, that’s Madison Booker, who earned her second straight Associated Press first-team All-America nod after averaging 19.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game this season, including an 18-point showing to help topple South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game.
She’s upped her game in the tournament, with a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double in the first round and then a 40-point masterpiece two days later in her final game of the season in Austin.
At her best, Booker is a smooth, three-level scorer evocative of Kevin Durant — which isn’t a coincidence given the No. 35 she wears, the fact that she plays at Durant’s former school and is even signed to an NIL deal with his shoe brand, not to mention the mentorship she has received from her favorite NBA player. but Booker is also a key part of Vic Schaefer’s stingy defense at the other end of the floor, too, and will have to do her part tonight given who she’s up against in the frontcourt…
