The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women’s Basketball honored by Naismith Awards
03.19.2026 | Women's Basketball
Schaefer, Booker and Harmon honored as semifinalists for national awards.
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Tipoff Club announced semifinalists for three of their national awards on Thursday. Madison Booker was named a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy for Women's College Player of the Year. Rori Harmon earned a spot on the semifinalist list for Women's College Defensive Player of the Year and head coach Vic Schaefer was selected a semifinalist for Women's College Coach of the Year.
Booker led Texas to the SEC Tournament Championship and was named the MVP of the tournament. For the SEC Tournament, Booker averaged 20 points per game, 8.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists per game and shot 61.4 percent from the field. Booker has been named a First Team All-American this season by the Associated Press, USA Today Sports and The Athletic.
Booker is averaging career-highs in points (18.9), rebounds (6.5) steals (2.3) and field goal percentage (51.6) this season. Booker has raised her field goal percentage six points from last season. Booker has 14 games of 20 or more points this season and 42 for her career. Booker, in her junior season has already climbed to sixth on the Texas career scoring list with 1,873 points. Booker is the only player in Texas women's basketball history to reach 1,800 points, 600 rebounds and 400 assists. In the SEC Tournament semifinal win over Ole Miss, Booker scored a career-high 31 points and added 11 rebounds and five assists. Over the summer Booker earned her fourth gold medal with USA Basketball as Team USA won the 2025 FIBA Women's Americup in Santiago, Chile.
Harmon, a 2026 Associated Press All-America honorable mention selection, is the Texas career assist leader with 943 assists. She broke a 40-year old record and has now extended that record by 167 assists. Harmon also holds the Texas career steals record with 370, breaking that record which had stood since 1980. In her collegiate career she has 1,574 points, 943 assists, 370 steals and 635 rebounds. Harmon is the first and only player in NCAA Division I women's basketball to reach 1,500 points, 900 assists, 600 rebounds and 350 steals. Harmon ranks third in the country this season in assist to turnover ratio. Harmon is on the Late-Season watch list for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award as well as 1 of 15 players on the National Ballot for the Wooden Award.
Head Coach Vic Schaefer has led Texas to a third straight 30-win season for the first time since 1988. The Longhorns are a No. 1 seed in three straight NCAA tournaments for the second time in program history. Texas leads the country with 14 wins over ranked opponents on the season. Since the start of the 2023-24 season Schaefer has led Texas to a 99-12 overall record. The Longhorns have won either a regular season or conference tournament championship in each of the last five seasons. Schaefer is the only women's coach to lead two different programs to an SEC Tournament Championship and is one of two active head coaches to lead two different programs to the Final Four.
