{"id":207675,"date":"2026-03-17T02:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/207675\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T02:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T02:25:14","slug":"texas-is-a-no-1-seed-in-march-madness-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/207675\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas is a No. 1 seed in March Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Texas Longhorns roll into the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament<\/a> with a No. 1 seed and a friendly road map for a return trip to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

They aren\u2019t the overall No. 1 seed for March Madness<\/a>. That\u2019s UConn. But with a standout duo of Madison Booker<\/a> and Rori Harmon, an emerging impact player in Justice Carlton, and the momentum of a romp through the SEC tournament<\/a>, the Longhorns can make a solid argument they\u2019re the team to beat as they chase the program\u2019s first national title in 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re good enough,\u201d coach Vic Schaefer said. \u201cWe\u2019re a veteran team in the right places. Our youth is mature now … This is a team that can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas (31-3) opens play Friday against the winner of Wednesday\u2019s First Four matchup between Missouri State (22-12) and Stephen F. Austin (25-9).<\/p>\n

Should the Longhorns win their first two games on their home court, they\u2019ll make just a 3-hour drive north to Fort Worth for the Sweet 16 and a regional final in front of what would likely be a very pro-Texas crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a pretty big deal to me,\u201d said Harmon, a fifth-year player from the Houston area. \u201cI\u2019m all about my family and traveling and what\u2019s easiest for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a Final Four finish last season, the Longhorns are \u201cextremely\u201d hungry to win that elusive national title, Booker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be the last one standing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 lone national championship came in 1986 when the Longhorns were the first national title winners to go undefeated. Texas made the Final Four in 2003, then waited 22 years to return, only to get bounced by a thumping loss to SEC rival South Carolina.<\/p>\n

The Longhorns were determined to get back there. The league coaches made them preseason favorites for the SEC title. They didn\u2019t get that, but won their first league tournament crown. The season started with consecutive wins in consecutive days over UCLA and South Carolina, and closed with that rollicking win over the Gamecocks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen us peak a lot in the past few games, even in practice,\u201d Harmon said. \u201cThe challenge is to play even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlton delivering standout moments<\/p>\n

Booker, a preseason All-American<\/a>, led Texas with an 18.9-point average this season and was the MVP of the SEC Tournament. She and Harmon, a fifth-year point guard who averages 6.2 assists, are the engine that drives Texas in the locker room and on the court.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s been Carlton\u2019s scoring potential that gives them the occasional turbo boost. She scored 10 points in the first quarter of a win over Georgia, 12 in the first quarter of a win over Kentucky, and nine in the first quarter of a win over Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

In the SEC tournament title game, Carlton knocked South Carolina on its heels with 13 points in the first quarter on 6-of-7 shooting. The Gamecocks never recovered.<\/p>\n

Texas needs more of that. Carlton has started 23 consecutive games and her production has been up and down. She averages 8.7 points and four rebounds, but hasn\u2019t posted consecutive double-figure scoring games since December.<\/p>\n

After playing just three minutes in Texas\u2019 last four NCAA Tournament games last season, Carlton enters this one with the confidence that she can light up the basket in an instant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do really enjoy that punch-first mentality,\u201d Carlton said after the SEC championship game.<\/p>\n

Schaefer\u2019s stings, zings and praise<\/p>\n

The regular season wasn\u2019t as easy as the Longhorns\u2019 record suggests. The toughest moments and criticism often came from their own coach.<\/p>\n

Schaefer benched Harmon for most of the fourth quarter in regular-season losses at LSU and Vanderbilt. After an 18-point loss in Nashville on Feb. 12, he went on a postgame rant<\/a> that questioned his team\u2019s heart and called the Longhorns \u201cprobably the softest team I\u2019ve had in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas hasn\u2019t lost since and Schaefer has softened around the edges. The 65-year-old has been to the Final Four three times, but has yet to win a championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just keep winning … I think we\u2019re playing our best basketball,\u201d Schaefer said. \u201cYou know, none of us are perfect and we all have our days, but these kids are special.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Texas Longhorns roll into the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament with a No. 1 seed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2901,555,557,132,134,133,2692,416,223,154,27,19634],"class_list":["post-207675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-college-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-ut-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}