Madison Booker's Back Injury Puts Texas Women's Basketball on Edge Early in the Season

Texas All-American Madison Booker left Wednesday's blowout win over South Dakota State after being undercut on a drive, with no clarity on her status heading into the heart of the schedule.

Madison Booker, the All-American senior forward and third-highest scorer in Texas program history, left Wednesday's game against South Dakota State after a hard fall at Moody Center. With 1:30 remaining in the second quarter, Booker drove to the basket and was undercut by South Dakota State's Mahli Abdouch while airborne. She landed on her back, stayed on the floor for a beat, then walked to the bench under her own power before heading to the locker room with a trainer. Booker did not return after halftime and was not seen on the bench for the remainder of the game. Texas won 93-63 without her — a margin that underscores both the team's depth and the fact that Booker's absence in a competitive game would be a different story entirely. Head coach Vic Schaefer offered little post-game, saying only that Booker "didn't feel good" and that the team would "know more tomorrow." He emphasized her toughness and love of the game as context for how unusual it was for her to sit. "Hopefully she wakes up and feels like a million dollars," Schaefer said. Booker had scored nine points in the first half before exiting and entered the game averaging 27 points across UT's first two contests, shooting 58.8% from the floor. She is the kind of player whose absence reshapes an entire team's ceiling — not just in production but in defensive attention and offensive gravity. The injury's nature remains unconfirmed. The visual — an airborne player undercut and landing flat on her back — is the kind of play that can range from a bad bruise to something structural. Until Texas releases an update, the program is holding its breath. For a team with national title aspirations, the timing is early enough to recover from but late enough in Booker's career to feel high-stakes. This is a story that is entirely about what we don't know yet. The blowout scoreline buries the lead: Texas's 2026-27 season may hinge on an MRI result.