Hailey Van Lith caught attention on the basketball court at the University, and before the WNBA draft began on Monday night, he was doing the same on the orange carpet.
The former frog star with TCU horns shone with a black dress. Paige Bueckers, Kiki Iriafen, Sonia Citron, Georgia Amore, Aneesah Morrow, Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers joined Van Lith on the carpet before the draft.
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Hailey van Lith of TCU poses before the WNBA basketball draft, on Monday, April 14, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
It was Van Lith who got social networks to speak.
“It’s a funeral, Nena. It’s a university funeral,” he said about his outfit.
Van Lith entered the draft after his last university season in TCU. She helped take a cornudas frogs to a Big 12 championship before losing in the Eight elite. It was the first time that the program came so far in the NCAA Women’s Tournament.
Hailey Van Lith of TCU jumps to the court during the presentations before the first half in the second round of the NCAA University Basketball Tournament against Louisville in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Tony Gutiérrez)
He averaged 15.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 172 race games. She was an All-American for the first time last season.
Van Lith went viral before the season ended when he spoke extensively about his mental health.
“The way they exposed me to the media and social networks at such an early age, I really fought with mental health things,” he said, through Sports Illustrated. “When I was younger and at the university, it was suicidal, I was strongly medicated and I felt trapped.
Hailey van Lith of TCU was expected to be one of the first selections in the WNBA draft. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
“I would never know it because I was having much success on the court, but internally, and in life in general, I was ready to do. That is what I mean when I talk about suffering and pain. It’s as if I didn’t even want to live.
“Then, to come from that to this is incredible. I have been praying all year as, ‘God, I know you have given me this testimony of sharing it with the world and throwing your light’, and I think this is the year and this is the time when people want people to know my story and how it has literally taken me from deep people to want to die until this moment of life.
