Booker, Depleted Texas Begin Title Pursuit Despite Roster Losses
Texas opens its season Wednesday night against Fairleigh Dickinson with star guard Madison Booker leading a roster reshaped by offseason departures. The Longhorns enter ranked No. 6 after losing three key contributors to the transfer portal following a Final Four loss to UCLA last season.
Guard Jordan Lee left for South Carolina, guard Aaliyah Crump transferred to Duke, and forward Justice Carlton moved to Houston. All three played significant roles as Texas reached back-to-back Final Fours for the first time in 20 years and earned a third straight No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. Point guard Rori Harmon, a cornerstone of the program for five seasons, also departed after the Washington Mystics selected her in the third round of the 2026 WNBA Draft. Texas point guard Bryanna Preston called the transfers difficult personally but acknowledged players must act in their own interest. Booker said she continues to support her former teammates' decisions. betting bandy
Lee was Texas' second-leading scorer last season at 13.2 points per game and a standout perimeter defender; she started and scored 13 points in her South Carolina debut against Maryland. Crump, a top high school recruit, was limited by injuries in her lone season with the Longhorns. Harmon departs as the only Division I player with more than 1,500 points, 900 assists, 600 rebounds and 350 steals in a career, and coach Vic Schaefer said replacing her defensive presence - she typically guarded opponents' top perimeter threats - will be the program's biggest challenge this season. That responsibility now likely falls to Preston.
Booker, now a fourth-year player, took over point guard duties as a freshman when Harmon missed most of the season with a knee injury, and she remains the focal point of Texas' offense. She is coming off the worst performance of her career, shooting 3 of 23 in the Final Four loss to UCLA, a span that included 17 consecutive missed shots. She finished with 11 points in a blowout Final Four loss to South Carolina the previous season. Booker needs 31 points to become the fourth player in program history to reach 2,000 career points. Schaefer called her the best player in the country, and Texas is considered a leading challenger to top-ranked South Carolina for the SEC championship as the season begins.
