{"id":234787,"date":"2026-04-04T08:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/234787\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T08:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T08:39:08","slug":"why-rori-harmon-defended-texas-f-madison-booker-after-ucla-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/234787\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Rori Harmon defended Texas F Madison Booker after UCLA struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2014 Nearly an hour after her collegiate career ended on Friday night, Texas senior\u00a0Rori Harmon<\/a> distributed one more assist.<\/p>\n

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This assist won’t be added to Harmon’s career totals. She’ll settle for 977 on that count, which is still a school record by 201.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns guard Rori Harmon (3) and forward Madison Booker (35) leave the court during a timeout in the NCAA Final Four game against UCLA at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

No, this assist was a metaphorical one. As Harmon waited to fulfill the duties of a veteran point guard and speak at UT’s\u00a0postgame conference following a 51-44 loss to UCLA in the Final Four<\/a>, she found a despondent Madison Booker seated in a Mortgage Matchup Center hallway and consoled her teammate after the junior forward’s 3-for-23 shooting performance. Harmon then grabbed the microphone while Booker struggled to answer a question on the podium about her offensive woes.<\/p>\n

“You’ve all got to realize, she’s human. She’s a basketball player. We want her to take those shots,” Harmon said. “I truly told Maddie, I don’t care. I don’t care what your statistics look like. There was plenty of other things that caused us to lose the game, not just because Madison missed her money midrange, because I promise you we’ll continue to go back to her, we’ll continue to look for her, we’ll continue to tell her to take her shot.<\/p>\n

“So she’s going to sit here and be like, ‘This is on me.’ No, it’s not. Please give her a break. Thank you.”<\/p>\n

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Golden: Vic Schaefer’s best shot yet at a title ends with Texas Longhorns coming up flat<\/a><\/p>\n

Harmon was later asked in a breakout interview why she felt the need to speak up for Booker. After all, it was Harmon’s college career that had just ended. A three-time All-American<\/a>, Booker still has a bright future ahead of her at Texas.<\/p>\n

“No matter what, I’m always going to check on my teammates and my sisters. Those are my friends and my sisters for life,” Harmon said. “Basketball is basketball. Nobody died. There’s no funeral. It is just a basketball game, but mental health is a really big deal. I understand\u00a0Maddie didn’t play her best game, and I talked to her and she really thinks it’s her fault. When someone feels that way, you console them. That’s your teammate. You don’t let them ever feel that way. You never make them feel that they’re alone.”<\/p>\n

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Said Booker: “I definitely needed that for sure.”<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns guard Rori Harmon speaks at a press conference after the loss to UCLA in the NCAA Final Four at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

End of Rori Harmon’s career leaves Longhorns feeling disappointed<\/p>\n

Already the Longhorns’ all-time leader in assists and steals, Harmon started for a school-record 155th time in the UCLA game. She finished with eight points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals as Texas was beaten in the Final Four for the second straight season.<\/p>\n

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Pulled from the game in the final seconds,\u00a0Harmon was greeted by Texas coach Vic Schaefer<\/a> near the scorer’s table. The point guard expressed her frustrations. The coach told her to celebrate her career and gave her a hug.<\/p>\n

More: Subscribe to the Statesman’s Texas sports newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

Harmon met with teammates and coaches in the locker room after the game, took some time to be angry, consoled Booker and did a few media interviews. She even sat next to\u00a0Schaefer for one more of the coach’s trademark rants as he wondered why Harmon was never more than an honorable\u00a0mention on the Associated Press’ All-American team.<\/p>\n

“That is a crying shame to have our sport not recognize someone as good as she is, that plays as hard as she plays, and plays the right way,” Schaefer said. “You want to talk about somebody that’s hard to replace. We may never replace her. The impact she has on our team. But shame on you. Shame on the people because there’s not another player in the history of our game, not one, and we’ve had some pretty good players.”<\/p>\n

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Back in the Texas locker room, Texas teammates said they were disappointed that they couldn’t get Harmon the national championship that has eluded the UT program since 1986<\/a>. The Longhorns ended their season with a 35-4 record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is really disappointing, because you do really want that for\u00a0Rori,” sophomore forward Justice Carlton said. “She’s really built this program up from the ground, and it really does suck. It’s really disappointing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Nearly an hour after her collegiate career ended on Friday night, Texas senior\u00a0Rori Harmon distributed one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[74833,34522,27,29,537,5276,28,792],"class_list":{"0":"post-234787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-ncaa-women-s-basketball-tournament","9":"tag-rori-harmon","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-longhorns","13":"tag-texas-longhorns-women-s-basketball","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-ucla-bruins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234787","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=234787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}