Hailey Van Lith will conclude her college basketball career with one final year at TCU. The 23-year-old McDonald’s All-American chose to forgo the WNBA Draft and is expected to be one of the top scorers in the country.
She has a lot to prove after a frustrating season at LSU.
Van Lith was a five-star recruit out of high school. The 5-foot-9 combo guard committed to Louisville and plugged right into the starting lineup as a freshman. The Cardinals made three-straight NCAA Tournaments, including a Final Four. She averaged 19.7 points per game on 41.1% shooting as a junior.
As good as she was in 2022/23, there was a larger conversation about Van Lith’s ability to translate to the WNBA as an off-ball scorer of her size. Kim Mulkey, who previously recruited the Washington-native to Baylor, offered an opportunity to play a new position with the reigning national champion Tigers.
Van Lith packed her bags and moved to Baton Rouge. Her goal was to learn how to play as the primary ball-handler in a more traditional point guard role.
It brought mixed results.
Although Van Lith grew a lot as a player and had a few big games, she put up career-worst numbers at LSU and often looked out of sorts as the 1. The position change did not go as well as either party hoped. Mulkey attributed Van Lith’s decision to leave directly to her role with the Bayou Bengals.
Her aspirations were to get drafted this year. And she realized, “I need another year, and I need to get back to a place where I can relax and get back to my normal position.”
— Kim Mulkey
Hailey Van Lith ultimately transferred to TCU after flirting with Mississippi State. Head coach Mark Campbell can’t wait to let her loose.
We’re going to use her as a true combo guard. Hailey can play the one, she can play the two, but Hailey is just an attacking, dynamic, playmaking guard. She’s not pigeonholed into one position.
Hailey needs freedom, she needs space, and when she has those things she can put the ball in the hole at a high level and create for your team at a high level. So we’re going to make sure she gets to do those things. We want to play fast in transition, she’s hard to contain. So hopefully we unleash Hailey, but she’ll be used at the one and the two for us.
— Mark Campbell
The Horned Frogs also acquired Maddie Scherr from Kentucky to round out its bombshell backcourt, as well as a few bigs. They have a real opportunity to make some noise in the Big 12 if the roster can figure each other out.
Van Lith seems to be thriving with her new team in her new role. She made 6-foot-7 center Sedona Price look like Bambi on ice skates with a saucy hesitation move during practice earlier this week.
Call it the HVL hesi 💨#GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/7bRD3cer72
— TCU Women’s Basketball (@tcuwbb) October 15, 2024
The sequence was so smooth that even Price, who is a really good defender, couldn’t help but smirk.
Van Lith’s lone year in the Red Stick proved extremely valuable in the long run. One 15-second video from practice obviously does not indicate whether or not the Horned Frogs are going to win a national title but she looks way more comfortable as a ball-handler while also getting back to her roots as a scorer. Look out!