Van Lith’s spark lights TCU’s path to best season in program history and 2 seed in March Madness

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Hailey Van Lith had a hunch she would end up at TCU to finish her college career.

The spunky point guard’s legacy figures to last much longer than her one-year stay after the best season in program history for the Horned Frogs.

TCU (31-3) set records for overall victories and Big 12 wins (16) while going 19-0 at home, where the Horned Frogs will host NCAA Tournament first- and second-round games for the first time. A 2 seed, TCU opens against Fairleigh Dickinson (29-3) on Friday.

For good measure, the Frogs added their first Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles, beating Baylor to clinch both.

Yes, those are the Bears with 13 regular-season Big 12 titles and 11 tournament championships, and the program that had a 37-game winning streak covering 35 years against TCU before going 0-3 against the Frogs this season.

While Van Lith is just one of the “Big Three” for TCU alongside Sedona Prince and Madison Conner, she’s the lone newcomer. Sure, the first season together for Prince and Conner was wrecked by injuries, but even those two agree there’s something a little different with Van Lith in charge as the primary playmaker.

“I think she brings a lot of just fight to our team,” Conner said. “She’s a dog on and off the court. I think that’s something that we kind of needed. We had a lot of good pieces and stuff, but you definitely need a dog on your team to kind of uplift everybody and just kind of make them compete at a higher level.”

The path to Texas

Van Lith has known second-year TCU coach Mark Campbell since high school, when he was recruiting her out of Washington state as an assistant at Oregon.

She picked Louisville — a possible second-round NCAA opponent — and spent three seasons there before joining LSU the season after the Tigers won the national championship when the Final Four was in Dallas, about 30 miles from the TCU campus in Fort Worth.

Van Lith’s lone season at LSU ended with an Elite Eight loss to Caitlin Clark and Iowa in a rematch of the 2023 NCAA title game. She was trying out for the U.S. Olympic 3-on-3 team while mulling one more transfer. After the TCU decision was behind her, Van Lith helped the U.S. to a bronze medal in Paris.

“It was a chaotic time for me,” said Van Lith, the only college men’s or women’s player picked by Team USA. “There’s a lot going on and for me to really feel like every day I wake up, something was telling me to pick up the phone and call (Campbell) like that. So, I can’t really explain what I think it was. Besides, you know, just divine intervention.”

The coach’s call

Van Lith said Campbell’s only mistake was calling her dad before calling her, but she obviously forgave him. Corey Van Lith, who played basketball at the University of Puget Sound in the family’s home state, told Campbell to stay close to his phone for the next 10 minutes.

Once that conversation happened, Van Lith told Campbell she had been thinking about TCU even before he called.

“Hailey is one of those kids that changes your whole program in every area,” Campbell said. “She has no chill. She goes. She is the ultimate competitor in everything she does, in her grind and her preparation. We have a pro that’s still in college is what we have.”

A special season

TCU’s 9-0 start included 76-68 victory over then-No. 3 Notre Dame before a humbling 85-52 loss to defending national champion South Carolina in what was technically a neutral-site game a few miles from the TCU campus.

The only two Big 12 losses were to Oklahoma State and Kansas State, and the Frogs enter their first NCAA Tournament since 2010 on a 10-game winning streak. Van Lith was named Big 12 tournament MVP after scoring 20 points in a 64-59 victory over Baylor for the title.

While Van Lith and Conner combined to make TCU one of the most accurate and prolific 3-point shooting teams in the country, the spark plug with the braided pony tail was the one who had fans wearing Van Lith jerseys or carrying signs with her name waiting for autographs after home games near the tunnel that leads to the locker room.

“We needed a senior leader to join us and to come in and be another incredible piece, a scoring threat, it’s like no other,” Prince said. “And she brings a lot of people into the stands, too. So, you know, she plays likable.”

What’s next

Van Lith and Prince are likely headed to the WNBA, with that draft only days after the season ends. This is it for Conner, too, so Campbell figures to need significant help in the transfer portal to keep the Frogs competitive.

They’ll worry about those things later, after the Frogs try to finish off a perfect season at home, which would mean the program’s first trip to the Sweet 16.

“I’m just forever grateful for Hailey in these nine months that we got to be together,” Campbell said. “Man, I’d give my left arm to have another ride and do it again. But we’re going to max this out. We’ve got a lot of basketball still ahead of us.”

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