Hailey Van Lith’s TCU journey one of women’s basketball best stories
What a fantastic season for Van Lith, who transferred to TCU after an underwhelming season with LSU. During her tenure with the Tigers, she never really quite found her footing, and by year-end, much to her dismay, she became a March Madness meme. Still, she persisted even with many mental health battles along the way. Van Lith transferred to TCU, and early in the season, you could tell the move would be special. The senior cried happy tears after an early season upset win over NC State, and she never looked back.
A full redemption tour happened this season, silencing any haters who dared to doubt her. Van Lith’s gritty performances began stacking up and earned her multiple Big 12 honors, a Big 12 championship, and, oh yeah ― a date with the Elite Eight. On Saturday, Van Lith dropped 26 big ones all over the Notre Dame Irish, including 18 points in the second half. (Balling!) What a day for her WNBA draft stock, and a bloody knee wouldn’t stop the show.
‘This is why!’ an ecstatic Van Lith shouted after the Horned Frogs upset win over 3-seed Notre Dame.
Angel Reese still supports former teammate Hailey Van Lith
Since being a teammate at LSU, Angel Reese has supported her girl Hailey Van Lith’s journey to TCU. Throughout her season, she’s tweeted about Van Lith several times.
In November, she posted, ‘HVL. That’s all I’mma say,’ and during Saturday’s massive matchup with the Fighting Irish, Reese only shared a fitting three letters.
Hailey Van Lith’s journey from LSU to TCU has been transformational
Looking back on Van Lith’s journey, an old Kim Mulkey quote now carries more weight. Van Lith could have quit, but she never gave in, even when her time at LSU wasn’t the kindest to her. Mulkey shared these words with the media after Iowa beat LSU in the Elite Eight last year:
‘Hailey Van Lith came to LSU after being an abundant shooter. Shot it a lot at Louisville. Had great success. Was on good teams. But she graduated in three years with a finance degree. She wanted to experience all the things I guess she saw from afar with our championship last year.”For her to take that leap of faith and leave her comfort zone at Louisville, you don’t see many players do that when she was that big a piece to their puzzle. She has embraced learning a new position, taking less shots. Our last game against UCLA, I thought her stats were very good, but I’m an old point guard, and I see all that.”Forever indebted to Haley and her unselfish play to come to LSU to play with a lot of great players and learn a new position.’