Hailey Van Lith had her best outing of the season against Florida on Sunday. It finally clicked.
LSU women’s basketball scored the program’s most amount of points in an SEC game since 2004 with the 106-66 victory. The fourth-year transfer guard dropped a season-high 21 points, with a season-high seven boards and one assist. She was awesome.
Van Lith looked like Van Lith, really for the first time since leaving Louisville to join the reigning national champions.
While there was never any doubt that the 22-year-old sharpshooter can ball, it has been a difficult first few months with her new program. There have been peaks and valleys, but someone who averaged 19.7 points per game with the Cardinals last season is averaging just 11.8 with the Tigers in 2023/24.
Don’t get Hailey Van Lith get hot!
A large part of that decrease year-over-year stems from a transition in Van Lith’s role. She went from the primary offensive weapon as a shooting guard at Louisville to more of the primary ball-handler at LSU.
Emphasis has been on distribution and ball movement over high volume output.
With that being said, Van Lith has also been hesitant to pull the trigger at times and visibly begged for the ball during a game against Texas A&M when her teammates were not finding her with open looks. It also appeared as though she was baffled by Kim Mulkey’s decision to give someone else the ball during a late-game situation at Mississippi State last week.
Hailey Van Lith will be the first to say that the challenge of change has been frustrating at times. However, her perspective on the situation is astutely introspective and humble.
Mulkey would agree that she is is proud of how Van Lith is evolving. Especially when it comes to being herself and focusing on the things that she can control.
Her words were a bit more blunt.
The Bayou Bengals are a top-10 team at 20-4. They are dangerous when Van Lith is not hitting more than 50% of her shots for 21 points. They are going to be even more of a force if she can continue this pace!