BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — After a Sweet 16 appearance with Louisville in last year’s NCAA Tournament, Hailey Van Lith shocked the women’s basketball world when she entered the transfer portal.
One year later, she could face her former team in the second round of the tournament.
During her time with the Cardinals, Van Lith led the team in scoring two out of three years and they never missed the postseason during that time. It seemed as though it was the perfect fit for the sharpshooter until one day she realized she wanted something more.
“I think it was a big faith moment for me,” said Van Lith. “I prayed on it a lot. My comfort was where I was at. I shot a lot. I scored a lot. I got a lot of attention. But something in me was just telling me, ‘Hailey, you need to do something else.’ I didn’t want to leave, but God told me to. And when I hit the portal, LSU was just a fit. I just knew that I wanted to go somewhere where I was going to get better.”
LSU star Hailey Van Lith says basketball feeds her competitive side in exclusive interview
Ultimately, Van Lith decided that Baton Rouge was the best fit for her and her quest to win a national championship, but she hasn’t forgotten the feeling of getting knocked out in the Sweet 16.
“When you think back and you’re like, ‘Man, last year, I could have went to another Final Four,’” said Van Lith. “I was one win away from going to another Final Four. There’s small moments in that where you’re like I’m not getting myself better for this team so that we don’t lose in the Elite Eight, that we get to that Final Four, that we get to the national championship. Losing makes you value and put your all into things. Winning can’t teach that. You have to lose to understand that.”
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