Hailey Van Lith makes her feelings known on facing Dawn Staley and South Carolina after Notre Dame upset

TCU star Hailey Van Lith is enjoying her best season in college basketball, leading the No. 9 Horned Frogs to an impressive 9-0 start. TCU now faces a significant test as it prepares to take on Dawn Staley and the No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday.

Van Lith's strong performance, averaging 19.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.5 assists per game this campaign, has helped the Horned Frogs off to their best start in the program's history.

Her 21 points led TCU to a crucial 76-68 win over then-No. 7 Notre Dame in a thriller last week in the Cayman Islands Classic. On Wednesday, she dropped 16 points and five rebounds as the Horned Frogs beat Florida Atlantic 78-42 to remain undefeated.

Hailey Van Lith joined ESPN's "SportsCenter" after the game, where she addressed the upcoming game against South Carolina.

"They speak for themselves — great team, great players. They're very deep, and they're extremely well-coached," Hailey said (1:53). "So, we're going to have to be on our A-game. We get a couple of days to prepare for them.

"They have a huge game tomorrow, which I look forward to watching. But they're a great team, and it's just going to be competitive basketball. I can't wait to get an opportunity to compete. That's what it's going to boil down to."

Dawn Staley's Gamecocks (7-1) take on No. 8 Duke in a top-10 showdown on Thursday before the clash with TCU.

Hailey Van Lith shares her experience playing at LSU for a season

After three years at Louisville, where she averaged a career-best 19.7 points per game in her final season with the Cardinals, Hailey Van Lith was a highly touted transfer to LSU in 2023.

However, Van Lith’s LSU experience proved to be a challenging one. On paper, the move seemed like a perfect fit — teaming up with Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson under the leadership of coach Kim Mulkey — but it did not click for her. Her stats plummeted to 11.6 points per game on 37.8% shooting.

"Obviously, outside looking in, it's different from what was happening in real life," she told ESPN. "The media never gets the full picture. But I grew a lot in ways that aren't going to show on paper right away.

"LSU will be an experience for me that will really pay off in the league. I think my transition to the league might be a little bit easier now that I've experienced a year like that."

After an underwhelming season at LSU, Hailey Van Lith transferred to TCU for her final collegiate season, where she was reborn and began posting eye-popping numbers.