Women’s March Madness: Texas stars Rori Harmon and Madison Booker pay for students to make Final Four trip
TAMPA, Fla. — Although Texas’ campus is well over 1,000 miles away from Tampa, Rori Harmon and Madison Booker made sure the Longhorns have student support at the Final Four. With some assistance from coach Vic Schaefer and their school, the two Texas standouts are helping 25 students make the trip from Austin by bus to watch them play South Carolina on Friday night.
“Me and Madison decided to put our money together to pay for these students’ way to come support us,” Harmon said. “I think that just shows we’ll do anything to help our students get here and for them to cheer us on. I’m just super glad we have some students coming… I think that’s cool.”
This was something Harmon and Booker really wanted to do for the students. Fortunately, they didn’t have to figure it all out by themselves as Schaefer and the Texas athletic department helped with the logistics of scheduling the bus trip. The students are expected to leave Texas at 5 p.m. local time Thursday and embark on the 17-hour ride journey to Tampa.
It’s a long journey, but definitely a worthwhile one.
“Rori and Book and myself, we’ve helped put a bus together and got these kids. So our students are coming from Austin. I think it’s the 17-hour bus ride,” Schaefer said. “Booker and Rori have really ramrodded this deal. Bought the tickets. Got them some hotel rooms. So we’re excited that we’re going to be able to have some University of Texas students be able to come to the Final Four and enjoy cheering on their team.”
Schaefer took over the program in 2020 and has guided Texas to four of the last five Elite Eights. However, this is the first Final Four appearance since 2003 for the Longhorns, who last played for the national championship in 1986 (a game they won 97-81 over USC for the program’s only NCAA title).
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The Longhorns’ matchup against South Carolina on Friday will be their fourth meeting this season. They split their two regular season matchups and ended up sharing the SEC’s regular season title, but South Carolina edged UT in the conference tournament championship — which was played in Greenville, South Carolina, just two hours away from the Gamecocks’ campus in Columbia.
The Gamecocks had the clear crowd advantage in the two meetings played in the state of South Carolina while Texas pulled out the win on Feb. 9 on its home floor.
It might not be the exact same environment at Amalie Arena in Tampa, but at least the Longhorns know there will be some fired-up students cheering them on in person — thanks in part to the generosity of Harmon and Booker.
