Hailey Van Lith has been a star for years.
She was a standout in high school before spending three seasons in college at Louisville where she twice earned first-team All-ACC honors and led the Cardinals to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore in 2022.
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Van Lith has flipped the script after a disastrous time at LSUCredit: Getty
Following her junior season she transferred to LSU, joining forces with the likes of Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson on the reigning national champion Tigers.
The team entered the season at No. 1 in the AP poll and women’s college basketball had a veritable Big Three.
But Van Lith, and the Tigers, were badly humbled on the grandest stage of all.
LSU faced women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Elite Eight of the 2024 NCAA Tournament — a rematch of the national championship game from the year before.
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Van Lith learned the hard way that there are levels to this sport.
Clark lit up the young point guard for 41 points, who was powerless to stop her.
The site of Van Lith haplessly trying to contain Clark and shrugging her shoulders as the now WNBA star backpedaled down the court after making a signature 3 was difficult to watch.
Van Lith, once deemed a shoo-in for the WNBA Draft, saw her draft stock tank in the wake of that embarrassing defeat.
