Hailey Van Lith will be a Horned Frog.
The point guard, who began her college career at Louisville and played this past season at LSU, is transferring to TCU, Talia Goodman of Next Hoops first reported.
Van Lith averaged 11.6 points and 3.6 assists per game with LSU this past season.
Her scoring total was down from the previous year at Lousville, where she averaged 15.4 points per game because she was on a team with less scoring talent and thus had more shot attempts.
Van Lith’s final impression at LSU was a failure to contain Caitlin Clark in the Elite Eight, when LSU faced Iowa in a rematch of last season’s national championship game and Clark avenged the previous loss by going off for 41 points, including nine three-pointers.
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey addressed Van Lith’s decision to enter the transfer portal at a team banquet over the weekend.
“Her aspirations were to get drafted this year, and she realized, ‘I need another year and I need to go back to a place where I can relax and get back to my normal position,” Mulkey said, according to Nola.com. “And what do you do? You hug her, and you wish her well.
“She wanted to improve her strengths by coming to LSU with a goal of expanding her game by learning a position that I played my entire life because she knows at the next level that’s her only chance – to be able to tell them somewhat, ‘I can handle the ball if you need me to.’”
Mulkey called Van Lith “one of the hardest working players that I’ve ever coached”.
There had been some thought that Van Lith would wind up at Mississippi State, as she played for the Bulldogs’ head coach Sam Purcell at Louisville.
Former Miami star Haley Cavinder announced in November that she would be playing at TCU in the 2024-25 season after taking a year off from basketball.
Earlier this week, Cavinder’s twin sister, Hanna, announced that she would be returning to Miami after previously stating that she was finished with basketball.
It would not be totally surprising, given the state of NIL and the transfer portal, if Haley ultimately wound up rejoining her twin at Miami next season.