After impressing everyone with their physical prowess against the UConn Huskies in their last preseason game, the Texas Longhorns have made a statement against the ghosts of their past that kept them one game short of reaching the NCAA championship last season. The Longhorns beat UCLA 81-64, and at the center of success was someone who desperately needed redemption from her last encounter against the Bruins: Madison Booker.

In their Final Four meeting last season, to say Booker struggled would be an understatement. The forward scored six points on 3-of-23 shooting, blanking all four shots from outside the arc. The Bruins won 51-44 and eventually the national championship. But this time, Booker didn’t make the same mistake. She scored a game-high 21 points on a highly efficient 7-of-13 shooting and 2-of-2 from the three-point line. Such a performance earned her respect even from the opposition head coach, Cori Close.

“Madison Booker is one of the best players in the country, no question about that… Give her her flowers for earning that consistency over time,” UCLA head coach Close said when a reporter asked her if she felt “fortunate” that her team did not play against this version of Booker in last season’s Final Four, per a video on UCLA Athletics’ YouTube channel.

Booker’s elite run in form continues after she posted 23 points on 11-of-17 shooting and grabbed six rebounds against the Huskies. Though the Longhorns lost 83-61, Booker gave them the most trouble. The Huskies tried to shut her down multiple times, but that came at the cost of a few fouls and errors on their side, to the point that even UConn head coach Geno Auriemma acknowledged Booker’s impact on the Longhorns.

“They spend a lot of their possession running Madison Booker off every kind of screen imaginable. And I think you’ve gotta fight through all those, and you got to work really hard, and then she catches in, scores over you anyway. So, it’s a really difficult assignment,” Auriemma said about Booker.

Madison Booker could not have started her senior year with the Longhorns on a better note. The 21-year-old is now just 31 points away from reaching 2,000 points for the Longhorns, and she recently earned the AP preseason All-America honor for the third consecutive season. Booker received 28 votes from the AP’s 31-member panel, matching Hannah Hidalgo and trailing only UConn’s Sarah Strong, who received 30.

“In my mind, Madison Booker is the best player in the country,” Longhorns head coach Vic Schaefer said after her selection to the AP preseason All-America honor.

The general sentiment is clear: Booker belongs among the elite, and that became obvious in her junior year.

If we move on from the disastrous end to Booker and the Longhorns’ season, Booker was more or less flawless. She averaged 18.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 51.7% from the field, and became the first player in Texas women’s basketball history to earn AP All-America honors three times. Booker also won her third consecutive Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year award, joining Iowa State’s Ashley Joens as the only three-time winners.

While Booker’s latest honor may seem minor compared to her previous accolades, it recognizes her sustained performance, which has also reflected on the stat sheet. Apart from scoring 1,969 points, Booker has 699 rebounds, 431 assists, and 199 steals throughout her Texas career. With the season officially beginning next month, Booker has a good chance of reaching three significant milestones once preseason concludes.

Regardless, Booker will look to win her first NCAA championship in her senior year after coming agonizingly close to the national championship game last season. For Booker, defeating the reigning champions at H-E-B Center at Cedar Park is less about bragging rights and more about boosting the team’s confidence.

“They’re a good team. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got the dub, especially coming off a loss to UConn last week. But no, this win for us just gives the whole team just a confidence booster,” Booker said after the game.

The Longhorns will not have the services of the program’s all-time leader in assists and steals, guard Rori Harmon, this season. This is because she exhausted her eligibility after completing five seasons at Texas. Other than her, the Longhorns lost three more players to eligibility limits and three to the transfer portal. Such a situation calls for a leadership change, and Madison Booker is likely to be the one filling that role in her senior year.

The Texas Longhorns officially begin their season on November 4 against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas, and it will be interesting to see how Madison Booker and company will execute their preseason learnings against the UConn Huskies and UCLA early on.