Hailey Van Lith Is Back to Her Old Self Ahead of Matchup With Louisville

Hailey Van Lith did not ask for this: a second-round game against her old school. It would be an awkward matchup for almost anybody, but it is especially unfortunate for Van Lith. She was a star with the Louisville Cardinals and is a star with the TCU Horned Frogs. She doesn’t need to give anybody the opening to say anything else. But if No. 2 seed TCU loses to No. 7 seed Louisville … well, people will say what they will say. She knows that by now.

It is easy—too easy—to view Van Lith’s collegiate career through the prism of expectations: First she wowed people with what she does well, and then she heard all about what she doesn’t do well. For three years at Louisville, Van Lith was an irresistible offensive force, the kind of player everyone wants on their team. Then she transferred to the LSU Tigers, joining what was supposed to be a superteam, but the year only seemed to highlight her limitations.

She is not a pure point guard. She is also not a great defensive player; her listed height is just 5' 9" and she is not laterally quick enough to make up for it. LSU didn’t need her to score like Louisville did, and Van Lith went there, in part, to show the WNBA she can be a distributor. (The WNBA is not a league full of 5' 9" shooting guards.) Van Lith’s season at LSU was a pretty good example of why fit is so important. She shot just 37.8% from the field, averaged just 11.6 points, and left for TCU.

In Fort Worth, she has not reinvented herself. She just reintroduced herself. Van Lith is a feisty baller who has a presence you can’t teach. When Van Lith left LSU, Kim Mulkey gushed about her work ethic, and Mulkey wouldn’t say it unless she meant it. Van Lith has had a transformative effect on the Horned Frogs’ program.

“Hailey, for what she’s done in one season, really it’s nine months, it’s incredible,” TCU coach Mark Campbell told reporters after TCU beat the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on Friday. “Man, I wish we had her back for one more year.”

The Horned Frogs fell behind 17–12 early, which was not a big deal unless they thought it was a big deal. Van Lith wouldn’t let them think it. She said afterward that “we had a little bit of nerves. We also maybe didn’t want to get in foul trouble.” TCU needed somebody who has done this before and expects to do it again, and that is Van Lith.

“It’s a different, a whole different group of people,” Van Lith said. “But the vibe and the mindset that you have to be in is pretty similar. I’ve had a pretty good amount of success in March Madness, so I kind of know what it feels like. And I think that game was really good for us because we worked it out. And I think some teams can get stunned or they start to get really nervous that the team’s even in the game.”

As a sophomore, Van Lith led Louisville to the Final Four. Even her disappointing year at LSU was only really disappointing because the Tigers were defending champs and preseason No. 1; they made it to the Elite Eight and lost to Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes.

In time, Van Lith might become the player she hoped to become at LSU, and the one the WNBA would like to see. In the meantime, she is a hell of a college player. She could be the difference against Louisville, in a matchup that she should dread if she were prone to dreading.

“Three Elite Eights, one Final Four,” Van Lith said Friday, before Louisville beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers to set up its reunion with her. “At the end of the day, I’m just excited to play another game, whoever that may be. I’m up for the challenge. I love to compete, and it’s in God’s hands, man. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and I’m just going to go out there and try to be the same girl that I’ve always been.”