Vic Schaefer's Texas Longhorns have earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Texas Longhorns Women's Basketball earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament after the program's first SEC Tournament championship just over a week ago.
And with that success under head coach Vic Schaefer now comes sky-high expectations for more hardware.
Texas has drawn the No. 1-seed in Region 3 of the March Madness bracket. The Longhorns just narrowly beat out South Carolina for the third No. 1 seed (behind UConn and UCLA) and receive a matchup with either Missouri State or Stephen F. Austin from a First Four play-in game.
The Longhorns won two of their three meetings with the conference-rival Gamecocks. The tournament title and tougher strength of schedule were enough to propel Texas into the third-best positioning.
Texas will host the first two rounds of the tournament, and the regional draw offers the possibility for just as much support later in the tournament. Region 3 will run through an in-state location with the regional championship hosted at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
Schaefer's Longhorns now attack their national title expectations with as much star power as you could ask for.
Madison Booker is the engine that powers Texas on both ends of the floor. She is in a position to win the Cheryl Miller Award given to the nation's best small forward a record third season in a row after averaging 18.9 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting over 51 percent from the field.
Booker is joined by a cast of both dynamic newcomers and steady veterans. True freshman Jordan Lee has been a standout with 13.2 points per game and a team-leading 67 made 3-pointers. Senior guard Rori Harmon also steers the ship with 212 assists and 91 steals on the season.
In addition to the teams competing in the First Four game before their draw against the Longhorns, the other game that will take place in Moody Center in Austin will be No. 8-seed Oregon playing No. 9-seed Virginia Tech.
Texas carries its 42-game home winning streak into its 38th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance (second-most appearances among all DI teams).
The Longhorns' expectations - and potential odds - of winning a national championship rank just as high as their seeding here in the 2026 bracket.
