Doug Feinberg Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Hailey Van Lith is focused on making the U.S. Basketball 3×3 Olympic team this summer and isn't worried about where she'll go to college next year.
Van Lith is currently attending training camp in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is scheduled to compete in a 3×3 tournament at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame early next week.
The 22-year-old guard, who played at the University of Louisville and LSU, has had success in 3×3 with the U.S. national team. She won a gold medal with the U18 team in 2019 and helped the team win gold at last year's FIBA 3×3 World Cup. The Paris Games will be the second Olympic Games to feature 3×3, following the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“What I remember most is that every game was so unique,” she said of 3×3 play. “The strategy is very different for each game. You can't specialize in one thing and be a 3-on-3 player. You have to be able to defend all positions, at least for a few seconds.”
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Van Lith has a chance to qualify for the Paris Games, as two of the four members of the U.S. team must rank in the top 10 in the U.S. in cumulative points earned in the FIBA rankings. Van Lith currently sits in fifth place.
Playing with many WNBA players in training camp, including Dearika Hamby, Alesha Gray and Rhyne Howard, helped Van Lith improve her game.
“When you play against them and see how you score or don't score, you know what you need to improve on,” Van Lith said. “It’s a little taste of the early days of the league.”
As for where she will play college basketball next year, she says she hasn't signed anywhere yet. Van Lith did not enter the WNBA Draft and she decided to play one more season in college.
“I visited TCU and was very interested, but I also visited other schools and was very interested in them as well,” she told The Associated Press. “We haven't made any formal commitments, but we're very close. No school has put the ink on the paper.”
Van Lith said he has mostly stayed away from social media since LSU lost to Iowa in the Elite Eight this month. She didn't even know Haley Cavinder wouldn't play at TCU until Saturday afternoon and decided to return to Miami.
She said Cavinder's choice would not influence her decision.
“It doesn't matter to me,” Van Lith said. “If she had stayed and I had gone to TCU, I would have loved to play with her.”
Van Lith averaged 11.6 points and 3.6 assists in his only season at LSU and was a member of the defending NCAA champions in 2023-24. She has the option of having another season, as the NCAA is giving an extra year to athletes whose freshman seasons were affected by the pandemic.
She starred at Louisville for her first three years, leading the Cardinals to the Final Four in 2022. Louisville lost in the Elite Eight last year, after which she committed to LSU. She was one of the most recognizable characters on Portal last season, and she's in that position again now.
