Hailey Van Lith had the worst season of her five-year college basketball career while at LSU. However, the former five-star recruit actually became a much better player while playing for Kim Mulkey in Baton Rouge.
She will be the first to say so!
Van Lith, selected No. 11 by the Sky, will actually begin her first WNBA seasonw ith back in the Boot. Chicago is going to play against Team Brazil at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on campus at LSU on Friday. It is a homecoming of sorts for Angel Reese. It is the same, to a much lesser extent, for her new (and old) teammate.
Van Lith saw her season average drop from 19.7 points per game as a high-volume shooting guard at Louisville to just 11.6 during her lone year with the Tigers. Mulkey moved her to the point guard position as the primary ball-handler. The legendary (but ever-controversial) head coach thought it was what she needed if she was going to find success on the professional stage.
She knows at the next level that’s her only chance — to be able to tell them somewhat, ‘I can handle the ball if you need me to.’ She had to embrace a change in her mindset of not shooting it 20 to 30 times a game but finding who’s open and getting them the ball. And sometimes it was hard because she would be pressured and she’d be pounding the heck out of that ball.
— Kim Mulkey
Whether you want to admit it or not, Mulkey was absolutely right and Van Lith agrees. To some extent.
For me, LSU was just a year that I had to make ends meet and figure it out no matter what. And that’s what the pros is. You want to play on a team, you want to have a job, so you do whatever you need to do to make that happen.
— Hailey Van Lith
It was a challenging year for Hailey Van Lith, who recently spoke about her struggles with mental health. Not only did her numbers take a hit, so did her confidence. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
It was the year that helped me get ready for the league the most from a mental perspective. (That season at) LSU was like — this is the mentality that you have to have to be a pro. You have to just figure out how to make things work when it’s not what you expected it to be.
— Hailey Van Lith
Van Lith ultimately transferred to TCU for her final season of eligibility and led the Horned Frogs to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. She immediately returned to form as the team’s primary scorer with 17.9 points per game.
And yet, it was not her shooting that stood out! Van Lith averaged 5.4 assists in 2024-25, which was a career-high by 1.8 assists per game. The frustrating year at LSU made her a more complete player and made her realize that she has to adapt if she wants to succeed.
When I was younger in college, I was so stubborn. Like, I was going to prove to everyone that I could be exactly how I wanted to be and I wasn’t going to conform at all to what they wanted me to be […]
Nothing will ever work if you’re super hostile or closed-minded. It’s a team. If you want to be like that, go play tennis.
— Hailey Van Lith
Hailey Van Lith is set to make her WNBA debut on Friday and I would imagine that Kim Mulkey will be in attendance. It might pain LSU’s head coach not to say “I told you so” but she was absolutely correct.
The Chicago Sky are going to use Van Lith as an on-ball guard in rotation with star point guard Courtney Vandersloot. Even though her time in Baton Rouge was not easy, it allowed her to get to where she is today, both as a player and a person. Sometimes hardship leads to the best outcome. This is one of those times.