TCU’s Hailey Van Lith is back in a familiar place: Her fifth Elite Eight

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Hailey Van Lith admitted she was tired.

No, she wasn’t worn down after second-seeded TCU’s 71-62 victory over Notre Dame in the Sweet 16. Following the win, she was already talking about how excited she was to practice on Sunday, to keep TCU’s magical season going.

But Van Lith was tired at halftime. “Gassed,” she admitted. The Horned Frogs trailed by two points after 20 minutes, snapping their 26-game streak of leading at the break.

“I was very tired. They were very physical with me. They weren’t letting me move without meeting me with an arm bar,” Van Lith said.

Yet, she found a burst in knowing how hard she worked to get the Horned Frogs to their furthest point in school history. Van Lith didn’t just think about the 36 games TCU had played up to Saturday’s contest, or the physical fall practices. She remembered summer workouts and the three-a-days — yes, three-a-days — she put in as she prepared not only for TCU’s season but also to compete for Team USA’s 3×3 basketball team in the Paris Olympics.

Over the summer, her days would begin with TCU practices, usually around 7:30 or 8 a.m. Then, she’d play 3×3 with some of her Horned Frogs teammates, using the FIBA 3×3 ball. Van Lith would then drive from Fort Worth to Dallas and train with Irv Roland, a longtime basketball player development coach, and put in individual work and watch film. She would try to get home around 5 p.m.

“It sounds like a lot, and it is, but if you want to do things that are unusual, you have to do stuff like that,” Van Lith said. “It 100 percent paid off today.”

Her workload might have been unusual, but the result of her hours on the court, and in the weight and film rooms, have brought Van Lith to a place she’s actually very familiar with.

For the fifth time in five seasons, Van Lith will compete in the Elite Eight. From her first three years at Louisville, last year at LSU and now at TCU, she became the first player in NCAA history — men’s or women’s — to reach this point of the tournament with three teams.

This point isn’t new for Van Lith. But it is for the Horned Frogs, who had never made a Sweet 16 before let alone a regional final.

TCU would not have made it this far if not for the 5-foot-7 guard scoring 18 of her game-high 26 points in the second half. Her 12 fourth-quarter points outscored the entire third-seeded Irish team.

TCU coach Mark Campbell and top assistant Xavier Lopez recruited Van Lith while they were still assistants at Oregon. They’ve known Van Lith and her family since she was around 15. The coaches and Van Lith remained in touch over the years, and when she entered the transfer portal after last season, TCU was eager for the opportunity to bring her in. More importantly, she wanted to be in Fort Worth. She wanted to play point guard, a role many had said she was no longer capable of playing.

“A warrior, competitor, a winner,” Lopez said. “We believed all along that she is a point guard, that she’s one of the best point guards in college basketball.”

The Horned Frogs utilize a pick-and-roll heavy offensive system, allowing Van Lith to create in space and routinely showcase her craftiness getting to the rim. Against the Irish, her full repertoire was on display.

Going up against three of the best guards in the country — in Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron — she finished a spin move with her left hand, attacked right and switched hands late for another layup, cut backdoor for another hoop and converted a right-handed hesitation drive with 1:10 to play and Citron draped on her back in what was a de facto finishing move.

Sure, some Van Lith drives didn’t end in baskets, but she kept attacking. No matter how often the Irish went under ball screens and dared her to shoot, she kept firing.

“What I’ve learned through my experience in these tournaments is you can’t always ask yourself to make every shot,” said Van Lith, who won Big 12 Player of the Year earlier this month. “But if you’re willing to compete and lay it all out there every game, you’re giving yourself a better shot than a lot of other people are out there.”

TCU is better because of it. On Saturday, Van Lith became the Horned Frogs’ single-season record-holder for points scored. (She had already become their single-season assist leader.)

“She’s a dog,” senior guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu said. “They couldn’t contain her and she really put on a clinic of getting to the paint, drawing fouls facilitating. It was just great to see.”

Van Lith said that when she goes up against other talented guards, she tries to take any challenges head-on: “When I play a really good guard, my goal is to win that battle.”

By the end of Saturday’s 40 minutes, she had the scars to prove it. With 2:29 to play, Van Lith emerged from a timeout with black athletic tape wrapped around her right knee to stop a cut from bleeding. With 24.6 seconds remaining, a TCU trainer wrapped tape around her left elbow.

“I kinda like it,” she said. “When I’m all bandaged up, I kinda feel like a badass.”

All along, TCU drew confidence from its first meeting with Notre Dame. Back in November, the Irish led by six at halftime. TCU trailed by 14 at one point in the third quarter. Then, Van Lith scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half, orchestrating a TCU comeback. The victory punctuated the Horned Frogs’ place as a national contender.

At halftime on Saturday, then, Horned Frogs players remained calm. They had been here before. Though they trailed by two at half, they believed if they didn’t turn over the ball and allow transition scores, they were in good shape to again come back.

“The fight and spirit that this group showed in the second half is what you have to do to win in March,” Campbell said.

With just over four minutes to play, Van Lith hit a 3-pointer sure to be replayed now that the Horned Frogs are marching on. With the shot clock running down, she realized she was open on the left wing. She gathered her dribble with her back to the rim, then quickly spun forward and fired over the outstretched arms of Notre Dame freshman center Kate Koval, who was mounting a late close.

“I knew it was in as soon as I let it go,” Van Lith said.

Of course she did.

“It was a big shot by me, but that’s what I’m supposed to do. Hit big shots.”

Before TCU’s locker room dance party broke out, Van Lith put the final touch on her masterclass, which also saw her log nine rebounds, record four assists and a block. She dribbled the ball up the floor on the Horned Frogs’ final possession. Then when the buzzer sounded, she shot both her hands up to the sky. She and her teammates began embracing almost immediately.

“It inspires us as coaches. It inspires her teammates,” Lopez, the assistant coach, said. “At the end of the day, we just don’t want this story to end. We just want to keep it going.”

Maybe nobody wants that more than Van Lith, whose three-a-days paid off, and who is leading the Horned Frogs to places they’ve never been.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

TCU Horned Frogs, Women's College Basketball, Women's NCAA Tournament

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