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Watch: Texas Longhorns Guard Madison Booker Stars In New NCAA Tournament Series
Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker watches the NCAA tournament bracket reveal in the University of Texas Club at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Sunday, March 16, 2025 in Austin. Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

No. 5 Texas Longhorns' star guard Madison Booker is one of the faces of NCAA women's basketball, and now is being featured as part of the March Madness series, Next Generation. The series features several athletes from a star-studded sophomore class, including Booker, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, USC's Juju Watkins and Iowa State's Audi Crooks.

Booker, a Mississippi native is the second player in Texas Longhorns' history to win back-to-back conference player of the year awards, winning Big 12 Player of the Year in her freshman season and SEC Player of the Year in her sophomore season.

She has signed several high-profile NIL deals, one with C4Energy and another with CAVA, both ahead of the NCAA tournament. Despite all of the extra attention, she's stayed focused on her main goal, leading Texas to a national championship.

Last season, Booker led Texas to the Elite Eight as a freshman, without point guard Rori Harmon, who missed the majority of last season with a torn ACL. Now, Booker and Harmon are back at full strength and Harmon is using her preivous experience to prepare her team for the big games.

"Honestly, I just tell them, this isn't a walk in the park," Harmon said. "You could play one game and you can go home after and nobody wants to do that, and they have to know that we don't want to do it, that other teams don't want to do that either. So we get everyone's best, and just our preparation and practice needs to be 100% and a plus effort."

Booker and Texas lost to South Carolina in the SEC Tournament Championship but split their regular season matchups. While she didn't shoot the ball well in any of those matchups, she found other ways to help her team.

Her versatility as a player is highlighted in the March Madness feature series, and she also shares how she has matured and grown both on and off the court.

Booker and Texas will take the court next against the winner of 16th-seeded High Point and William and Mary for their first-round NCAA Tournament matchup on Saturday, Mar 22 at 8:45 pm. The game will be aired on ESPN2.

This article first appeared on Texas Longhorns on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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