When Is the Last Time Texas Won the Women’s NCAA Tournament? Full List of Longhorns’ Championships

The Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team is one of the best in the nation, heading into the 2025 NCAA tournament with a 31–3 record and runners-up in the SEC tournament.

It’s been a remarkable season for the Longhorns, but it’s still nowhere close to the best in program history.

That distinction belongs to the 1985–86 Longhorns, who became the first women’s team to finish the season as undefeated national champions.

When Did Texas Women Last Win the NCAA Tournament?

Led by head coach Jody Conradt, the Longhorns jumped out to a 9–0 start while defeating seven teams ranked in the Top 25 (six in the top 10).

Texas went on to win the next 18 games, taking 17 of them by at least 10 points. Two blowout victories in the Southwestern Conference tournament put the Longhorns at 29–0 heading into the NCAA tournament, earning the No. 1 overall seed.

The Longhorns defeated Missouri by 41 in the first round of the tournament, then followed that up with a 26-point drumming of rival Oklahoma.

Texas dealt with a scare from Mississippi in the Elite Eight, but dispatched the Rebels 66–63 before bringing the hammer down on Western Kentucky 90–65 to advance to the national championship game.

The title game was a high-profile rematch from the regular season against the USC Trojans and superstar Cheryl Miller. Miller had already led the Trojans to back-to-back national championships in 1983 and 1984, then spent the summer of ‘84 winning a gold medal with Team USA in the Olympics. However, the Longhorns had run away from the Trojans in December of that season, defeating USC 94–78.

The national championship played out in a very similar fashion. The Longhorns held Miller to a 2-for-11 shooting night, while Clarissa Davis scored 25 off the bench for Texas. In the end, Texas won the championship 97–81 to finish off the first undefeated season in NCAA history.

Full List of Texas’ NCAA Championships

The Longhorns’ incredible 1985–86 season remains the program’s only national championship.

How Texas Has Performed Since Its Last Title

Texas didn’t lose much momentum after the 1986 championship game, going 117–15 over the next four seasons. However, the Longhorns never reached the Final Four in that stretch, losing in the Elite Eight three-straight years.

It would take until 2003 for the Longhorns to reach another Final Four.

Conradt continued to be the head coach until 2007, when she retired after missing the NCAA tournament two years in a row. Gail Goestenkors and Karen Aston followed Conradt, with each coach having a relatively successful run in Austin, albeit with seven first- or second-round exits between the two of them over a 13-year period.

Texas declined to renew Aston’s contract when it expired in 2020, instead hiring Vic Schaefer.

Now in his fifth season, Schaefer is 140–35 with Texas. The Longhorns have made it to at least the second round in each of his five seasons, including three trips to the Elite Eight.

Can Texas Win Another NCAA Championship in 2025?

BetMGM currently has Texas at +600, tied for the fourth-best odds to win the national championship in 2025.

The Longhorns will likely be a No. 2 seed in the tournament, after losing to South Carolina in the SEC championship game. The team’s three losses have come to Notre Dame (once) and South Carolina (twice). The Fighting Irish and Gamecocks were ranked in the top 10 for each matchup.

According to BetMGM, both Notre Dame (+550) and South Carolina (+325) have better odds of cutting the nets.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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