Texas basketball's veteran guards must step up to aid freshman Madison Booker | Golden
Texas women's basketball is talented enough to not be a one-woman gang, and it’s something the Longhorns must avoid if they are to break through for the program's first Final Four in 21 seasons. If super freshman Madison Booker has to carry too much of the load, that recipe will be one for disaster and a short stay in the NCAA postseason.
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Booker, the newly minted Big 12 co-player and freshman of the year, is an unselfish player who probably gleans more joy from an opponent making a bucket than she does promoting her own accolades, but the toughest loss of the season, last week at Oklahoma, could be the one that provides the most teachable moment entering her first NCAA postseason.
The last few days after the regular-season finale was a great opportunity for coach Vic Schaefer to get his players some deserved respite entering Saturday’s Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal, especially Booker and her backcourt mates Shay Holle and Shaylee Gonzales, who are averaging 36.2 minutes per game as a unit.
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After Saturday’s 71-46 win over BYU, the Horns have title aspirations albeit with the possibility of earning a No. 1 seed lessened after they lost in a showdown at Oklahoma, one that came down to a controversial — and bad, in my opinion — traveling call on their best player in the closing seconds.
It’s been a banner season so far, one that was lowlighted by the loss of star point guard Rori Harmon to a torn ACL in Game No. 12. If anything, this 27-4 regular season was one of resilience and resolve. In addition, finishing second in the Big 12, while not the desired result, puts the Horns in nice position to make a run in the NCAAs.
Schaefer is the first to mention the Longhorns wouldn’t be here without Booker, who's starring on a team that has plenty of postseason experience. And the thing you can’t help but love about her is the humility on her face that masks basketball’s version of an on-court killer.
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She’s never played in a Big 12 Tournament or the Big Dance, but let’s not confuse inexperience for fear. Booker's not scared.
“I’m always learning what I can do better for my team,” Booker said. “It’s going to come. I’m not really worried about it. I’m not looking into the future. I’m just taking it one game at a time.”
Booker is box office, but Schaefer will have to get more consistent offense from the other guards. The Horns had no problems with BYU before 10,364 fans on Senior Night when Booker scored 17 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, but Holle and Gonzales combined to go 2-for-17 from the field. On the bright side, they totaled six assists and four steals.
This came one game after Booker struggled down the stretch in Norman, when she went 1-for-9 in the fourth quarter though she did score seven points, thanks to five free throws. Problem was, the rest of her teammates could muster only three points.
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With the postseason coming up, questions will abound as to if the Longhorns are too offensively dependent on Booker, who has been the key to this offense since taking over for Harmon. Will Schaefer trust his bench enough to keep her legs fresh in a tournament situation? He’s an old veteran who has successfully navigated shorter rotations before.
We’ll see if he will figure out a way to buy Booker some rest here and there. Freshman Gisella Maul has played some backup point and sophomore Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda has played in a non-Booker lineup where Gonzales has run the offense.
Schaefer is the first to say that college basketball is a guard’s game, and he has one of the best who will leave here one day with All-American credentials on her résumé. But there has to be some concern when it comes to their leading scorer having so much scoring responsibility on her plate.
Booker has been electric all season and we can only dream of what could have been had she and Harmon been allowed to play a full season together.
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That said, with these money games coming up, Booker will be in a brave new world. She’s game as all get-out, but one can’t help but wonder if she can hold up with so many minutes. She was visibly tired down the stretch at Oklahoma where she sold out on both ends, with four of her six steals coming in the fourth quarter.
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Bigs Taylor Jones and Aaliyah Moore have held it down for the most part and DeYona Gaston has been a picture of toughness by powering through ankle issues, but the Horns will need more consistent scoring from Holle and Gonzales, who while tasked with guarding the other team’s best perimeter player will still have to deliver offense if Texas is get out of that first weekend at home.
Sophomore Amina Muhammad could definitely be utilized more. She’s a rangy 6-foot-4 swing athlete with the ability to guard multiple positions, but has played only 17 minutes over the last thee games after breaking out with 15 points and 14 rebounds in 35 minutes at Texas Tech.
Another possible concern is long-distance shooting. The Horns are one of those rare good teams that have gotten it done without the benefit of volume 3-point shooting. They lead the Big 12 in scoring at 82.1 points per game and shoot a respectable .355 from behind the arc, but their 123 makes ranks not only last in the conference but also last among teams ranked in the AP Top 25 and 317th among 349 teams in Division I.
For context sake, the game’s best player — Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark — has made 162 triples in her final college season.
For his part, Schaefer is confident his perimeter players will show up when it matters most.
Yes, it’s a guard’s game and make no mistake…it’s most definitely a guard’s tournament.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas freshman guard Madison Booker is soaring pre-NCAAs
