This season, the Texas women’s basketball team will have a new conference but old expectations.
Texas claimed the No. 2 slot in the preseason poll released by the Southeastern Conference on Monday. Texas sophomore forward Madison Booker also shared the SEC’s preseason player of the year award with the LSU tandem of Flau’Jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow while UT senior guard Rori Harmon received a second-team nod on the preseason honor roll.
The preseason poll and teams were voted on by media members who cover the SEC.
Texas trailed just South Carolina in the preseason poll. LSU, Oklahoma and Ole Miss were respectively listed third, fourth and fifth. Texas A&M was ranked 13th among the league’s 16 teams.
Texas is coming off a season in which it finished second behind Oklahoma in the Big 12 standings but won that conference’s tournament. The Longhorns lost just one starter from a team that went 33-5 last season and reached the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight round.
Alongside Oklahoma, Texas joined the SEC this summer.
As a freshman, Booker earned Associated Press All-American honors as she averaged 16.5 points and five assists per game. Booker played out of position for much of last season as she filled in as the Longhorns’ point guard after Harmon suffered a knee injury in December. Harmon averaged 14.1 points and 3.1 steals over her 12 games, and she produced 93 assists to just 12 turnovers.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: SEC ranks Texas women 2nd in league’s preseason basketball poll
