Tag: Hailey Van Lith

Kim Mulkey’s blunt advice for Hailey Van Lith: ‘Welcome to the real world, Hailey’

Kim Mulkey is an old-school head coach. She is not someone who will mince words.

[autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] is an old-school head coach. She is not someone who will mince words.

If you are looking for someone who is going to beat around the bush and hint at what she is really thinking, that isn’t her. A common theme with tough coaches like Mulkey is they exhibit tough love for their players.

Old-school coaches aren’t afraid to get in your face and chew you out, but they have a good reason for it. They get on you because they know how good you can be. Sometimes, you just need to get out of your own head.

I feel like that is how Mulkey was talking about [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag] after Sunday’s win over Florida.

“She’s gotta quit worrying about negative people,” Mulkey said. “These young kids, they read too much crap. She’s human and she wants to please her teammates, she wants to please her coaches, she wants everyone to like her. Well, welcome to the real world Hailey, it doesn’t work that way. Be you. Do you.”

Van Lith scored 21 points, tying for the team high in the win over the Gators. She’ll hope that trend continues when the Tigers face Vanderbilt on Thurday night.

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Hailey Van Lith talks about finding her role at LSU

Hailey Van Lith has been in the spotlight ever since she transferred from Louisville to LSU.

LSU women’s basketball conducted a press conference on Sunday, and head coach [autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] and the players took time to answer questions about how the season has been going so far. One player who had a few questions thrown her way was [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag]. Van Lith has been in the spotlight since she transferred from Louisville to LSU.

She was the star player for the Louisville Cardinals, but she chose to leave Louisville to join [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] and the defending champion LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge. Van Lith was asked how hard it was for her to transfer to a team that had established stars already. Here is her response.

“I think it’s unprecedented, and we just gotta put one foot in front of the other, and I think you have to lean into the people that have been here and just accept the challenge,” Van Lith said. “I think it’s about mental toughness, true competitiveness, and knowing who you are. My motto for this year has been ‘Take one step every day.’ Sometimes I have bad games, but the next morning I get up and take another step. It’s hard, but that’s why I came here.”

Van Lith and the Tigers return to the court to take on Vanderbilt on the road.

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PHOTOS: LSU women’s basketball dominates Florida to end 2-game losing streak

Sunday’s win over Florida was never in doubt for the Tigers.

LSU ended a two-game losing streak emphatically on Sunday afternoon, smoking Florida at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in a 106-66 win.

The Tigers set the tone early in the game, answering a 6-2 start for the Gators with a 14-0 run to take control. They never gave it back, increasing their lead at the end of each quarter and to as wide as 45 points.

Both [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag] and [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] scored 21 points, while Aneesah Morrow totaled 18 points and 20 rebounds. She was a big part of a physically dominant performance in which LSU outrebounded Florida 59-34.

LSU got the victory it desperately needed, and it will hope to get a winning streak going when it hits the road on Thursday to take on Vanderbilt. In the meantime, here are the best photos from Sunday’s win.

 

Instant Analysis: LSU women’s basketball smacks Florida to end skid

The Tigers got back on track with a decisive home win over the Gators on Sunday.

It’s been a rough recent stretch for the LSU women’s basketball team, but it took out its frustrations on a struggling Florida Gators team on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers took control early in the game and never looked back as they cruised to a 106-66 win, their largest in SEC play to this point, to move to 19-4 and 6-3 in league play.

LSU had a slow start and fell into an early 6-2 deficit, but that was about the highlight of the game for the Gators. The Tigers responded with a 14-0 run to seize control of the game, and they led 24-11 after the first.

[autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] came close to reaching a double-double in just the first 10 minutes, scoring seven points with nine rebounds.

LSU widened the gap even further with a 10-0 run early in the second quarter and ultimately took a commanding 54-28 lead by halftime. The snowball effect continued into the third as LSU stretched a 37-point lead heading into the fourth, its largest of the game to that point.

In the fourth, the Tigers ultimately stretched a game-high 45-point lead before taking their foot off the gas. Still, they crossed the 100-point threshold for the seventh time this season and first time in conference play.

[autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag] and [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] led the team with 21 points each, and Morrow ultimately finished with an impressive 18-point, 20-rebound line. [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] scored 14, while [autotag]Aalyah Del Rosario[/autotag] and [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] also scored in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Tigers dominated on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 59-34. They scored 42 points in the paint and played strong defense, holding Florida to 35.3% shooting with 20 turnovers.

It was the kind of result LSU needed, and coach Kim Mulkey’s team will hope this level of play continues when the team returns to the court on Thursday for what will be a tougher test against Vanderbilt on the road.

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Hailey Van Lith looking so confused by Kim Mulkey drawing up an LSU play had fans laughing

Hailey Van Lith looked VERY confused.

We’re not really sure what’s going on here with LSU’s Hailey Van Lith and her seemingly confused reaction to Kim Mulkey drawing up a play.

But it’s kind of funny! And fans are sharing it! So here we are.

In the Tigers’ 77-73 loss to Mississippi State, Mulkey drew up a play and cameras caught Van Lith — who recently unintentionally recreated the Draymond Green and Kevin Durant meme with Angel Reese — looking kind of shocked and asking “WHAT?!” as Mulkey coached during a timeout.

What was that all about? No word on that. But here you go, some videos of that moment:

 

Angel Reese and Hailey Van Lith unintentionally recreate the Draymond Green, Kevin Durant meme

This looked just like the now-classic NBA meme.

Remember that time in 2017 when Draymond Green went up to Kevin Durant when they were both playing for the Golden State Warriors and started tapping the star forward’s shoulders and emphatically talked him through something?

That became a meme, and it was perfect and always will be.

Well, it happened again, although it was unintentional. This time, it was LSU’s Angel Reese with her teammate Hailey Van Lith during the Tigers’ loss to South Carolina on Thursday night. Reese definitely tapped with her hands and so many folks on X (Twitter) immediately compared it to the original meme.

Here you go:

Five takeaways from LSU women’s basketball’s loss to No. 1 South Carolina

The Tigers came out on the losing end of Thursday’s heavyweight fight.

Trying to snap a 14-game losing streak to South Carolina, LSU came up just short on Thursday night in front of a packed PMAC crowd.

It was a game that featured the two leading national title favorites according to the oddsmakers. This was a heavyweight fight, and it played out like one too.

The final was 76-70 with South Carolina coming up with some key buckets in the final two minutes.

All 10 players that started the game scored double-digit points, with LSU’s [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] notching a game-high of 16. For South Carolina, it was Chloe Kitts leading the way with 14.

Here are five takeaways from LSU’s close loss.

Instant Analysis: LSU women’s basketball falls short in upset bid against No. 1 South Carolina

The Tigers led for nearly 33 minutes against the top team in the nation, but they couldn’t close things out.

With College GameDay in attendance and a national television audience tuning in, LSU’s women’s basketball team looked primed for an upset against the No. 1-ranked, undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks.

The Tigers led for nearly 33 minutes of the game, but they couldn’t close it out as they fell 76-70. With the loss, coach Kim Mulkey’s team falls to 17-3 and 4-2 in SEC play.

Both teams had a good deal of offensive success early on, but LSU seized the early momentum thanks to some slightly out-of-character three-point shooting. It led by as much as 11 in the first quarter, and the success continued into the second.

The Tigers stretched their lead back out to 11 with 1:22 to play in the half, but South Carolina managed to cut it to five before the break, in large part thanks to a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Still, LSU led 41-36 as [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag] (11 points) and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] (10) scored in double figures in the half, while [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] was not far behind with nine of her own.

In the third quarter, LSU shot 58.7% to South Carolina’s 40%, but it was still outscored by one point as the Gamecocks cut the deficit to just four entering the final 10 minutes.

The fourth quarter, however, was a turning point. South Carolina outscored the Tigers by 10 points, and while the final seven minutes featured four ties as the game went back and forth, a layup from Raven Johnson with 22 seconds to go to give the Gamecocks a five-point lead proved to be the dagger.

Morrow finished with a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds, Reese ultimately fouled out with 15 points, while [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag] (13), [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] (12) and Johnson (10) also scored in double figures.

The Tigers were out-shot and out-rebounded by slight margins in the loss.

LSU took the best team in the nation down to the wire, and while it’s an ultimately frustrating result, it should bode well for LSU as it aims to defend last year’s national title come tournament time.

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Where LSU women’s basketball sits in national title odds

Here’s where LSU women’s basketball sits in the national title odds entering showdown with South Carolina.

It’s that time of year when college basketball starts to heat up.

Conference play is in full swing and the NCAA Tournament is less than two months away. Over the next month, resumes will be solidified as teams jockey for better seeding.

[autotag]Kim Mulkey[/autotag] and the LSU women’s team remain well-positioned. They aren’t off to the 22-0 start they had last year, but an 18-2 record will do.

LSU has its toughest test yet this week, facing Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team.

The Gamecocks overtook LSU as the title favorite earlier this year. According to FanDuel, South Carolina’s national championship odds are +290.

LSU didn’t fall far, though. The Tigers’ +500 odds rank second nationally, just in front of UCLA, Iowa and UConn at +600.

[gambcom-standard rankid=”3012″ ]

Despite the 18-2 record, LSU fell after some inconsistent play throughout the first two months. This week’s contest against South Carolina is a chance for LSU to add a signature win to its resume as it looks to push for a top seed in March.

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PHOTOS: No. 10 LSU women’s basketball rolls against Arkansas

The Tigers have recaptured some momentum since the loss to Auburn, which will be needed with No. 1 South Carolina coming to town on Thursday night.

The Tigers’ winning streak extended back to two games on Sunday with a 99-68 home win over Arkansas.

LSU controlled the game from the opening tip, turning in a prolific offensive performance as the team shot nearly 50% for the game with two players, [autotag]Mikaylah Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Hailey Van Lith[/autotag], scoring 20+. [autotag]Angel Reese[/autotag], [autotag]Flau’Jae Johnson[/autotag] and [autotag]Aneesah Morrow[/autotag] all also scored in double figures, with Reese recording a double-double.

The Tigers have recaptured some momentum since the loss to Auburn, which will be needed with No. 1 South Carolina coming to town on Thursday night. In the meantime, here are the photos from Sunday’s win.