Fresh off its first national title and retaining the majority of its championship core, LSU made a major play for title No. 2 with a huge transfer portal addition on Thursday.
Former Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith is headed to Baton Rouge.
Her new teammate, Angel Reese, shared her enthusiasm moments after Van Lith announced her decision.
Van Lith made First-Team All-ACC the past two seasons and was ESPN’s top-ranked player in the transfer portal this offseason.
In Charlie Creme’s evaluation for ESPN, he wrote that Van Lith “is a program-changer wherever she goes.”
That’s not necessarily true with her selecting LSU. She’s not headed there to change the program; her role is to help keep it in its place.
Along with Reese, the Tigers return Flau’jae Johnson, Jasmine Carson, Kateri Poole, Last-Tear Poa and Sa’Myah Smith from their championship team. In total, LSU has six of the eight players who played in the National Championship Game coming back.
The losses were big, however. Guard Alexis Morris and forward LaDazhia Williams combined for 41 points in the team’s 102-85 win over Iowa and were selected in the 2023 WNBA Draft.
Van Lith will take over the starting point guard role that Morris performed so well this past season.
LSU is also adding the No. 1 recruiting class of 2023, which includes five-star prospects in guard Mikaylah Williams and forward Aalyah Del Rosario.
The only question is who takes over for Williams in the post next to Reese, but Smith and Del Rosario give the Tigers two promising options to fill that void.
The defending champs — despite already being a threat to repeat in 2024 — got a lot better on Thursday, and the target on their back got a lot bigger, too.
