If TCU coach Mark Campbell could have, he would’ve stayed on the postgame podium all Sunday night answering reporters’ questions and gushing about his team.
He didn’t want this happy feeling to go away.
For the first time in program history, the Horned Frogs have survived the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Second-seeded TCU beat sixth-seeded Louisville 85-70 to advance to the Sweet 16.
“So proud of this group,” Campbell beamed. “To accomplish something that’s never been done here — men or women — to make it to the Sweet 16 is really, really hard to do. Somehow Hailey [Van Lith] seems to do it every year, so it’s normal for her. Everybody else, it’s not normal for.”
To think all this is happening for TCU — the reigning Big 12 champion — which just last year was holding open tryouts and forfeiting games and two years ago won just eight games and went 1-17 in the Big 12.
Campbell has pulled off one of the quickest and most remarkable program turnarounds in recent memory.
He did it by embracing the modern college athletics landscape.
Most of this team is made up of transfers.
For Van Lith, TCU is her third school in five years.
She played three seasons at Louisville and the previous one at LSU.
But Campbell’s aggressive efforts in the transfer portal are paying off and have put TCU on the map.
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“It’s cool to come into a program and see the beginning point of it, talking to Mark and seeing the vision he had for the team and all of us transfers that came in and trusted his process and the plan that he had for us,” guard Donovyn Hunter said. “He took a huge risk on us, and we took a risk on this program. … But I’m not surprised at all that we’re breaking all these record points in history.”
TCU is scheduled to play third-seeded Notre Dame on Saturday, with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.
The Horned Frogs beat the Irish earlier this season, but both teams have grown a lot since that late-November meeting.
Van Lith, who’s been to the Final Four twice (with Louisville in 2022 and LSU in 2024), knows TCU needs to remain locked in if the team wants this run to continue.
“If you get complacent after you win these first two games, the other team’s hungry in the Sweet 16,” Van Lith said. “It’s all about staying hungry and staying motivated. You don’t want to be the team that’s complacent out there next Saturday. … This couple days we get to prepare is going to be huge. And we have to be mature about it and handle it.”
