From the first phone call, Hailey Van Lith felt that Chicago was the right fit.
There isn’t much time for predraft networking in the WNBA. The draft takes place eight days after the NCAA championship game, leaving the league without time to host a formal combine. The final stage of scouting typically happens over the course of that week as coaches schedule quick calls with a slew of players to prepare their final selections.
But in two conversations ahead of the draft, Van Lith felt that Chicago Sky coach Tyler Marsh and general manager Jeff Pagliocca saw through to her core identity — a player who is tough, who won’t back down from a scrap, who still has plenty of room to grow.
And on draft night, Van Lith harbored a hope that she might be available when the Sky were on the clock with the 10th and 11th picks.
“Deep in my heart, I wanted to come to the Sky,” said Van Lith, who went to the Sky at No. 11. “I felt like they saw who I was as a player and I felt valued. I was hoping that I was available when Chicago’s picks came.”
It’s rare for a rookie to enter the league with Olympic experience. But throughout the last week, Van Lith found herself leaning heavily on her memories from last summer at the Paris Games, when she won bronze in the 3-on-3 competition.
Van Lith learned a lot from Paris. The Olympics taught her how to balance an offense alongside WNBA All-Stars such as Rhyne Howard and Dearica Hamby, showing Van Lith how she could create shots while facilitating for high-level teammates.
The tournament also showed Van Lith the physical preparation required to excel at the top level. The guard described Olympic 3-on-3 as the “ultimate beast” of getting in shape. That challenge taught her how to maximize conditioning — and prepared her for the grueling gauntlet of WNBA training camp, which will begin only weeks after her final NCAA Tournament game.
“As long as you’re in shape, you can take the bumps and the bruises as they come,” Van Lith said. “But if you’re gassed, that’s a hard place to be in training camp.”
At this point in her career, Van Lith is accustomed to change. She transferred twice in college — first to LSU after graduating in three years from Louisville, then to TCU for one final season. Success always followed. Van Lith earned the playful moniker of “Ms. March” this year after becoming the first NCAA player to lead three teams to the Elite Eight.
Van Lith feels this experience will help her adjust quickly to a new system and environment in Chicago. She understands how to quickly get a feel for the tendencies and preferences of new teammates and coaches.
As she gets to know the Sky over the upcoming weeks of training camp, Van Lith said she will follow a simple motto: “How can I help this team win?”
The Sky offer one crucial point of familiarity for Van Lith: former LSU teammate Angel Reese.
The two were teammates for only one season in Baton Rouge before Reese departed for the WNBA and Van Lith transferred to TCU. Reese and Van Lith have acknowledged that season didn’t work out the way they had hoped, but both voiced confidence in their ability to make the partnership work with the Sky.
“The WNBA provides a lot of spacing,” Van Lith, 23, said. “We have a very unique roster where that will be the case when we’re on the floor. So I’m really, really looking forward for the chance to play with Angel in this new system and see how it goes. I think that will be even more impactful than we were when we played with each other in college.”
Van Lith is also confident that working with Reese will be different in Chicago because she will be different in Chicago. She doesn’t feel like she’s the same player from LSU — and that’s not a bad thing.
Van Lith is not a traditional pass-first point guard. It took time for her to strike the proper balance of her style of play — pushing the tempo, distributing the ball efficiently, finding her spots while also facilitating ball movement to balance the floor.
Playing in a TCU system that mimics a pro-style offense, Van Lith finally found her stride.
“No. 1, the most that I’ve grown from my season at LSU is finding out fully what Hailey Van Lith as a point guard looks like,” she said.
Another crucial aspect of Van Lith’s development throughout the final two years of college took place off the court. The guard opened up during the NCAA Tournament about suffering from depression and suicidal ideation throughout her years at Louisville. Van Lith sought therapy after Stanford goalkeeper Katie Meyer died by suicide in 2022, a loss that sent shockwaves through the NCAA community.
To this day, Van Lith credits sports psychologist Derick Grant for helping her develop the mental fortitude and balance necessary to succeed as an elite athlete without suffering as an individual. And the guard feels this growth also improved her consistency as an athlete.
“When I was up here, nobody could tell me nothing,” Van Lith said. “But then the next game, I could be down here and you would have looked at me and thought I was a completely different girl. I was tired of it. I was tired of being inconsistent. I was tired of playing good half the season and then playing well below what I was capable the other half. And so I realized that it was all mental and I needed to work with someone who could help me.”
For Van Lith, the process of strengthening her mentality allowed her to enter the rookie experience with an open mind.
That will start with learning from veterans such as Courtney Vandersloot. Van Lith voiced her eagerness to learn everything possible from Vandersloot — how to watch film, how to see the floor, how to control the tempo and tone of a game with facilitation.
Van Lith is realistic about the challenges she will face as a rookie. At 5-foot-9, she is one of the smallest players on the Sky and slightly undersized for the WNBA, which continues to skew taller with each draft class.
The guard understands this disadvantage. She also knows how to overcome it — especially on defense, where she hopes to make a mark as a rookie. Van Lith is committed to winning the low battle. If an opponent puts the ball on the floor, swings low for a pickup or lets a rebound drop down to her waist, the guard aims to be there to make things difficult, a constant pest who will badger her defensive assignment.
“I’m a physical player,” Van Lith said. “Due to my smaller size, I’m very comfortable with the physical style of play. I’m very comfortable in that environment and I intend to use my physicality to help even things out anytime I’m at a size disadvantage.”
After the end of the NCAA season, Van Lith took a light break to allow her body to recuperate. But by Thursday, the guard was itching to get back in the gym. Now she is looking forward to the next step of her career: passing a physical and getting right back to work in Chicago.
