Hailey Van Lith labeled ‘Miss March’ after reaching fifth Elite Eight

Just call Hailey Van Lith “Miss March” after the TCU graduate senior guard punched her fifth career Elite Eight appearance with Saturday’s 71-62 win over Notre Dame. Van Lith scored a game-high 26 points on 10-of-21 shooting and also pulled down nine rebounds to secure the Horned Frogs’ first-ever Elite Eight appearance, where Van Lith and company will take on top-seeded Texas at 7 pm ET, Monday inside Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.

And while it will be TCU’s first Elite Eight, the trip will be the fifth consecutive for the well-traveled Van Lith, who also made it last season at LSU before Iowa‘s Caitlin Clark ended the Tigers’ run a game shy of the Final Four. Van Lith also helped guide Louisville to the Elite Eight in each of her three seasons with the Cardinals (2020-23), including make the 2022 Final Four before falling to eventual national champion South Carolina. Whether Van Lith can make another Final Four in her final collegiate season is yet to be seen, but that won’t take anything away from what “Miss March” has already accomplished.

“The Miss March (moniker) is deserved and earned. In this era of the portal and the modern-day college athlete, and there are a lot of bad stories in the portal, but Hailey Van Lith leading three schools five times to the Elite Eight, Miss March, yes, she gets that title and she can own it,” TCU head coach Mark Campbell said Saturday. “And it’s funny, you guys, one of the narratives with Hailey coming into the year at the highest level is can she defend? I mean, gosh dang, she is an elite defender. I don’t know where that came from, but with us she laces them up and she wants to guard the other team’s best player and she does it. It’s not like you’re trying to hide Hailey.

“The competitive spirit that she has to be our playmaker, it generates offensive opportunities that we have. And on the other end always being willing to square up against the other team’s best guard, she is elite, man,” Campbell concluded. “The kid’s competitive spirit, DNA and the heart that’s inside her chest is unmatched.”

Longtime Michigan State men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo has earned his “Mr. March” nickname due in part to his longevity and continual postseason success in the month of March, having won 84 career games in the month including 58 in the NCAA Tournament, according to the Detroit Free Press. Izzo will put his own moniker to the test Sunday afternoon when his second-seeded Spartans play No. 1 overall seed Auburn in the final Elite Eight game. A win Sunday night would give Izzo his ninth career Final Four appearance and first since 2019 in what is Michigan State’s 27th consecutive NCAA Tournament.

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