Madison Booker always gets catfish when she goes home to Mississippi. The University of Texas superstar and reigning SEC Women’s Basketball Player of the Year doesn’t get it from any restaurant or roadside food stall. Instead, it’s made at home by her aunt, accompanied with a healthy dose of hot sauce.
“She has to do it,” Booker says with a smile. “My aunt has to make the catfish. Like, it's no restaurant, no place. It's like, I go to my house, I'm back home.”
The chance to head home for a brief period of time was a respite amid a busy summer of basketball. Booker went with Texas to take on the Canadian national team and represented Team USA at the FIBA Americup. It wasn’t her first time playing at the national level but her first senior team call up. Typically, the Americup is the first major international competition for Team USA’s top collegiate talent. Booker, who has lined up against a lot of elite players over the course of her last couple years, got a chance to play with some for a change.
“I would say one person was like, one person I enjoyed playing with was Hannah Stuelke,” adds Booker. “I think she's a great vibe off the court too. I think when she gets on the court she’s different. She's got a dog mentality, very, you know, fiery, just make the right plays, hustle plays, the extra plays. So it was every fun playing with her.”
It challenged her to be a different kind of player and flex a few different muscles. Especially after three losses last season that she’d like to forget: a slate of games against South Carolina in which the Gamecocks targeted Booker specifically. After the Longhorns Final Four exit, she took some time to think about what needed to improve.
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