The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Olympics 3x3 comes first for star guard, then college
Paris Games are top priority for Van Lith; school decision soon.
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. — Hailey Van Lith is focused on making the USA Basketball 3x3 Olympic team this summer and is not worried about where she’ll end up at college next year.
Van Lith is taking part in a training camp in Springfield, Massachusetts, and will play in a 3x3 tournament early next week at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 22-year-old guard, who has played at Louisville and LSU, has experienced success in 3x3 for the U.S. She won a gold medal on the U18 team in 2019 and helped win gold at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup last year. The Paris Games is the second Olympics offering 3x3, after the event debuted in Tokyo in the 2021 Games.
“What I remember most is that every game is so unique,” Van Lith said of 3x3 play. “The strategy from game to game is so different. You can’t specialize in one thing and make it as a player in 3 on 3. You have to be able to guard every position for at least a couple of seconds.”
Van Lith has a chance to make the Paris Games because two of the four members of the U.S. team must be in America’s top 10 for total points
accumulated in FIBA rankings. Van Lith currently qualifies at fifth.
Playing in the training camp with so many WNBA players — former Atlanta-area high school player Dearica Hamby of the Sparks, and the Dream’s Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard — has helped Van Lith improve her game.
“Playing against them and seeing how I’m able to score and not score shows me what I need to get better at,” Van Lith said. “It’s a little taste of the league early.”
As far as where she will play college ball next season, she still hasn’t signed anywhere. Van Lith decided to play in college one more season instead of entering the WNBA draft.
“I did take a visit to TCU and am very interested in them, but I took visits to other schools and was very interested in them, too,” she told The Associated Press. “I haven’t made an official commitment, but I’m very close. The ink has not touched the paper for any school.”
Van Lith said she’s really stayed off social media for the most part since LSU lost to Iowa in the Elite Eight this month. She didn’t even know that Haley Cavinder had decided to not play at TCU and go back to Miami until Saturday afternoon.
V an Lith said Cavinder’s choice wouldn’t play a role in her decision. “It’s a nonfactor for me,” she said. “If
she had stayed and I did go to TCU, I’d have loved to play with her.”
Van Lith averaged 11.6 points and 3.6 assists per game in her only season at LSU, joining the NCAA defending champions for the 202324 season. She has the option for another season because of the extra year granted by the NCAA to athletes whose freshmen season was affected by the pandemic.
Van Lith starred at Louisville her first three seasons, leading the Cardinals to the Final Four in 2022. Louisville lost in the Elite Eight last year before she decided to transfer to LSU. She was one of the biggest names in the portal last season and is again now.