No. 1 Texas falls flat in\u00a0 humbling Final Four loss to UCLA<\/a><\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
There was a lot not to like in this one for Texas. But the Longhorns weren’t without their positives. Here are three things I saw that I liked and three things I didn’t like in Texas’ loss:<\/p>\n
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Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker (35) rolls her ankle and falls while pushing past UCLA center Lauren Betts (51) during the NCAA Final Four game at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Three things I liked from Texas<\/p>\n
The Texas defense came to play<\/p>\n
If someone told a Texas fan that the Longhorns were going to hold UCLA to 51 points while forcing 23 turnovers, the assumption would be that it’s time to play for a national championship. But the Longhorns couldn’t take advantage.<\/p>\n
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What an offensive nightmare. This one will sting for a while.<\/p>\n
Texas fight on an otherwise bad night<\/p>\n
It was easily their worst game of the season, but the Longhorns scrapped and clawed their way back to within three points with 30 seconds left. It wasn\u2019t their night, but the loss wasn\u2019t from a lack of effort.<\/p>\n
The hug that said everything<\/p>\n
Texas head coach Vic Schaefer and star point guard Rori Harmon shared a long embrace as the final seconds ticked down. Their basketball journey came to an end one game too early, but this moment was sports at its finest. These two helped build the Horns into a national championship contender over five years together and it\u2019s something to be proud of.<\/p>\n
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UCLA players celebrate after defeating the Texas Longhorns in the NCAA Final Four game at the Mortgage Matchup Center on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Three things I didn’t like from Texas<\/p>\n
How Madison Booker was used<\/p>\n
Schaefer knows his best player better than anybody, but Madison Booker could have used a quick blow in the first half as the misses started piling up. He didn\u2019t take her out until three minutes remained in the third quarter. Sometimes it\u2019s good to watch for a minute and she could have used that mental break in the early going.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Schaefer then kept her on the bench for the start of the fourth quarter when she was presumably well rested. The Bruins reeled off seven straight points to take a 10-point lead.<\/p>\n
Not playing Justice Carlton more<\/p>\n
On a night when Booker could not hit the side of a barn, Justice Carlton played only 14 minutes. Schaefer gave her an earful after she missed a defensive assignment in the fourth quarter, but he could have used her more on the offensive end. Her five straight points, including a tough bucket over 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts, got Texas back in the game in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
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Yes, Schaefer is a defensive mind, but on this night he could have used her offense more.<\/p>\n
The whole day of basketball<\/p>\n
The NCAA Tournament’s top four seeds didn\u2019t deliver great basketball after all getting here by blowing out the competition. South Carolina-UConn<\/a> was a real clunker for basketball purists and so was Texas-UCLA.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Hopefully Sunday’s title game between South Carolina and UCLA will deliver some quality hoops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Longhorns guard Rori Harmon (3) and forward Madison Booker (35) leave the court during a timeout in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9602,29530,48876,81012,83229,27,29,537,5276,28,792,13548],"class_list":{"0":"post-235020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-columnists-opinions","9":"tag-final-four","10":"tag-march-madness","11":"tag-march-madness-tournament","12":"tag-ncaa-march-madness-tournament","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-longhorns","16":"tag-texas-longhorns-women-s-basketball","17":"tag-texas-news","18":"tag-ucla-bruins","19":"tag-women-s-college-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235020","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=235020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235020\/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=235020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}