BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- On the eve of her fifth Elite Eight appearance with her third team, TCU guard Hailey Van Lith shared a message for those who wrote her off after her difficult season with LSU.
"Social media has basically given a lot of people who don't know what they're talking about a platform to share their thoughts," Van Lith said on Sunday. "I'm praying for them, man. Hope their life is good."
A year ago, Van Lith became a meme after Caitlin Clark scored 41 for Iowa and ended LSU's national championship defense. Shrugging after Clark scored her 37th point, the image represented Van Lith's season-long struggles. She averaged 11.6 points and 3.6 assists in 33 games while trying to learn the point guard position.
"Coach Mulkey's vision for a one was different than the one that I am," Van Lith said Sunday. "Just to be realistic. The style of play that I play as does not fit the one that she needs for her system."
Days after the loss to Iowa in the Elite Eight, she returned to the portal. Mark Campbell, who had recruited Van Lith when he was an Oregon assistant, called Van Lith's dad.
"I knew he was thinking in my best interest," she said. "So I 100% trusted him."
She made the decision in April and noticed a difference immediately when she arrived at TCU later that spring. On June 5, Van Lith was selected to represent Team USA in 3x3 at the Paris Olympics. Campbell didn't balk. He got on the court with her, and they pushed each other to exhaustion. Campbell played hard enough to pull his hamstring.
"He wasn't giving me nothing easy," Van Lith said. "Once I felt his genuine investment in me, I knew that I was gonna be able to thrive."
But even with a bronze medal from the Paris Olympics, Van Lith struggled with confidence in scrimmages.
"She came in very different than she is now basketball-wise," TCU center Sedona Prince said. "You could tell there was something in her head that was like, 'Don't take the shot.' We were like, 'Keep shooting, keep shooting. We love you. You're a star. Keep going.'"
Van Lith breathed life into a program that had far fewer highlights than the schools where she started her career. She notched her first career double-double with 18 points and 10 assists at home at NC State on Nov. 17.
"Hailey is a program changer," Campbell said Sunday. "She was the perfect piece at the right time with the players we had returning ... Preseason, I said our goal is to unleash Hailey Van Lith, and that's come to fruition."
Van Lith is averaging 17.9 points and 5.5 assists for second-seeded TCU (34-3). She was named the Big 12 newcomer and player of the year, and pieced together a 16-point, 10-assist game against Louisville in the second round, her second career double-double.
In her next game, Van Lith scored 26 points and had nine rebounds in a Sweet 16 win over Notre Dame.
On Monday against top-seeded Texas, she'll get another chance to show her critics that her season at LSU was an aberration, not a definition.
"Their opinions never cashed with me," she said.