Austin, TX

Texas freshman Madison Booker leading the No. 10 Longhorns

Published

2 years ago

January 5, 2024

Texas freshman Madison Booker leading the No. 10 Longhorns

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas freshman Madison Booker was supposed to spend this season as the talented sidekick to Longhorns’ star guard Rori Harmon.

They were shaping up to be quite the duo: the 5-foot-6 Harmon’s bouncy speed, playmaking and defense balanced by the 6-foot-1 Booker’s size, creativity and shot-making. They combined for 47 points in a win over UConn on Dec. 3.

That was before a knee injury ended Harmon’s season and forced Booker, one of the top recruits in the country in 2023, to step up as band leader for the No. 10 Longhorns.

In the three games since Booker moved from her natural position at forward to point guard, Texas is 2-1 with Booker averaging 19.6 points and 7.6 assists. The Longhorns (14-1, 1-1 Big 12) play at No. 24 West Virginia (13-0, 2-0) on Saturday.

She has the ball-handling and passing skills. Now comes the leadership part. The learning curve is steep and short.

“The point guard position is the hardest on the court,” Booker said. “Watching Rori do it, she makes it look easy.”

Booker can do the same. After a rough start in her Big 12 debut against Baylor that saw her briefly benched by coach Vic Schaefer, Booker scored 25 points and had nine assists in a tough 85-79 loss.

Baylor coach Nicki Collen was impressed.

“Put her in national freshman of the year conversation, because ‘Wow!’ ” said Collen, who was familiar with Booker’s play at the youth levels with USA Basketball, where she won world titles on the under-17 and under-19 teams.

“She was a power forward for USA Basketball and was really effective. Now to say, ‘Here, you’re the point guard, Rori is out.’” Collen said.

Booker was already handling some point guard duties this season but those minutes were limited because Harmon rarely left the court. She was a little overwhelmed by the speed of the game in the opening minutes against Baylor, which bolted to a 13-point lead and had Booker spinning.

“It’s one thing to hang out on the wing and let Rori deal with it. It’s another thing to be in the middle of the flame. That’s where she was,” Schaefer said.

Booker settled down when Harmon approached her on the bench. Harmon told her to take a deep breath and relax.

“She showed maturity and an incredible competitive spirit,” Schaefer said of Booker. “That’s what it takes to play for me.”

Booker said she came out of the loss a better and more confident player.

“(Harmon) is telling me this is my team now,” Booker said.

The burden to carry the Longhorns will only grow from here. Texas has also played three consecutive games without forward Taylor Jones, who was averaging 16.2 points and is the team’s leading shot blocker.

Booker’s size and strength make her a tough perimeter matchup for smaller defenders. Her assist count the last three games shows she already reads the floor like a veteran.

“I’ve not had a point guard like her, a big bodied (player),” Schaefer said. “Madison is different.”

Defense is still a work in progress. Harmon was a disruptor on the ball and the Big 12 defensive player of the year last season. Booker can’t match her quickness, but will learn how to be the help defender Harmon was, Schaefer said.

“It’s not about reinventing the wheel, it’s about finding a new way to crank that wheel and turn it,” Schaefer said. “Her basketball IQ is off the charts. … That kid is going to be great because she wants to be great.”

The Longhorns entered this season with a goal of winning the Big 12 title in the program’s last season in the league. Texas goes to the Southeastern Conference next season.

Big 12 teams may want to get their shot at Texas now before Booker completely settles in. Texas Tech missed its chance Wednesday night when the Longhorns won a rout on the road 74-47.

“We’re a bit wounded right now, but ain’t nobody calling me to saying hey, let’s put it off,” Schaefer said. ”They probably smell blood in the water so we have to get ready to go play.”

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Austin, TX

Taylor residents sue to halt proposed data center

Published

16 hours ago

November 27, 2025

Press Room

Taylor residents sue to halt proposed data center

TAYLOR, Texas — A proposed data center in Central Texas is getting a lot of pushback from residents. Approximately 40 minutes north of Austin, a group of neighbors in the city of Taylor sued the data center. They are pushing back against the data center that could soon be under construction roughly 500 feet from their neighborhood.

“This property is supposed to be deeded for parkland,” said Pamela Griffin, a resident in the neighborhood next to where the data center will be built. “This land was given to this community.”

The 87-acre land near Griffin’s community is embroiled in a legal battle between her and Blueprint Data Centers.

“We do not need a data center,” Griffin said. “I’m not against them, but we don’t need them in our community.”

Despite Griffin’s land deed lawsuit, a Texas judge has ruled in favor of the proposed project.

“When a judge dismisses a lawsuit because the plaintiff or the plaintiffs lack standing, what the judge means is you’re not a person who has the legal authority to bring this lawsuit,” said Mike Golden, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Griffin and other neighbors argue the data center will take away natural resources like water and what was supposed to be the future site of a park, so her fight is not over.

“We are going to the appellate court now,” Griffin said. “We did file.”

Griffin is passionate about advocating for the community because it’s the neighborhood she was born and raised in. Her grandmother bought property there in the early 1960s, and the community became a safe haven for Black people in Taylor.

“We weren’t allowed to be in the city limits at that time because they would not sell to the Black and brown community, so my grandmother realized they had to buy land outside,” she said.

She worries about the future of her small community now that construction of a 135,000-square-foot data center will begin within the next year.

It’s a project the city says will bring millions in revenue to Taylor.

“What data centers do to a community is it brings an influx of new revenue to all the taxing entities, including the city, the county and especially the school district,” said Ben White, the president and CEO of the Taylor Economic Development Corporation.

He explained how the revenue might benefit the city.

“City council will have the ultimate say on how those revenues are spent, but it could involve new parks for citizens, improve streets for the citizens, improve programs for the citizens,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of variety of different uses of those funds the council could decide to use them on.”

White also addressed the controversy surrounding the deed when asked about it by Spectrum News.

“We feel comfortable that EDC, we did everything correctly on our side,” he said.

Griffin now awaits the Third Court of Appeals to decide on her case.

“I’m asking for the community and the Taylor people to stick together and understand my fight against this data center coming into our community,” Griffin said.

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Austin, TX

How history has treated Texas Longhorns when underdogs against Aggies

Published

1 day ago

November 26, 2025

Press Room

How history has treated Texas Longhorns when underdogs against Aggies

Even before the invention of color television, savvy businesspeople were using the Texas versus Texas A&M football rivalry to bring patrons through the door.

Back in 1940, movie theaters made front-page news by offering Texans an opportunity to relive that year’s Lone Star Showdown.

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“UT To Beat A&M All Over Again,” read a small headline on the Nov. 29 edition of the Austin Statesman. The brief news story called the Longhorns’ victory “better drama than the fictional screen ever unfolded,” and declared that movie-goers would be treated to supplemental scenes from Texas’ 7-0 win over the Aggies on Nov. 28.

Texas Longhorns defensive back Jelani McDonald (4) yells in celebration after making an interception in the third quarter of the Longhorns’ game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Nov. 22, 2025.

Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman

The unlikely nature of Texas’ victory helped fuel that over-the-top public response. Scoring the only points of the game on their first drive, the Longhorns snapped a 19-game Texas A&M winning streak, unseated the defending national champions and denied the Aggies a place in the Rose Bowl.

For just the second time since that Thanksgiving day in 1940, Texas A&M is coming to Austin in 2025 with a perfect record. A place in the SEC championship game, which the Aggies have never participated in since joining the conference in 2012, is at stake.

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The Longhorns are underdogs, the bookmakers say. Most popular sportsbooks made Texas A&M a 2.5-point favorite heading into Friday’s clash at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Texas’ players aren’t exactly in a rush to adopt that narrative, though.

NO. 16 TEXAS VS. NO. 3 TEXAS A&M

When/where: 6:30 p.m. Friday at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

TV/radio: ABC; 1300 AM, 1370 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM (Spanish)

“I think we know what we’re capable of,” Texas defensive end Ethan Burke said. “Who does the sportsbooks? Have they ever played college football? Probably not.”

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Burke won’t be the only Longhorn unaccustomed to viewing the Aggies as the favorites in this longstanding rivalry. Texas holds a 77-37-5 all-time advantage over Texas A&M in the series, which dates all the way back to 1894. Texas has won 10 of the 13 matchups played this century, including last year’s tilt in College Station.

MORE: How Longhorns used Arch Manning differently against Arkansas

But, throughout history, the Longhorns have occasionally shown up to the Lone Star Showdown looking to spoil Texas A&M’s fun, as they did back in 1940.

On 28 occasions, the Aggies have entered rivalry week with at least two more victories on their ledger than Texas. When that is the case, Texas holds a 10-16-2 record. Its most recent victory under those circumstances came in 1998, when Ricky Williams broke the NCAA’s all-time rushing yards record with a 60-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

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Texas Longhorns receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. (0) gets into a verbal argument with Texas A&M defensive back Will Lee III (26) during the Lone Star Showdown at Kyle Field on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024 in College Station, Texas.

Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman

That year, the 7-3 Longhorns built a 23-7 lead over the 10-1 Aggies, but saw A&M break off 17 unanswered points to take a one-point lead with 2:20 remaining. That necessitated some heroics from quarterback Major Applewhite and kicker Kris Stockton, who booted through a 24-yard field goal with five seconds remaining for the win.

In recent history, that’s just about the only upset success the Longhorns have managed over the Aggies. Since 1960, Texas A&M is 11-1 against Texas when entering Thanksgiving week with two or more victories than Texas. Coaches Jackie Sherrill and RC Slocum routinely bested some bad Texas teams. Between 1986 and Mack Brown’s hiring before the 1998 season, the Longhorns lost five or more games nine times.

MORE: Why Longhorns appealed targeting call on Ty’Anthony Smith

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Before 1960, though, Texas often upset A&M teams with records that looked better on paper, holding a 9-5-2 mark against Aggies teams that held at least a two-game advantage in the win column. In 1938, a winless Texas team turned up at Memorial Stadium and beat the middling Aggies 7-6.

“Not a handful of fans, huddled against the autumn chill inside the huge horseshoe where an Aggie team had never won, dreamed it could happen,” the Austin American’s Weldon Hart wrote in the next day’s edition.

This year’s Longhorns don’t face the same odds. Texas, at 8-3, was the preseason’s No. 1-ranked team and has already beaten two top-10 foes on the year.

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Upsetting the unbeaten Aggies won’t require a miracle, but it would certainly make a lasting memory.

“We’ve got to prepare really well so we can play our best football,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Because our best football will be needed next Friday night.”

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