In a speech to fans and boosters, Kim Mulkey thanked Hailey Van Lith and discussed her decision to leave LSU and reenter the NCAA transfer portal.
Van Lith is still searching for a place to play a fifth season of college basketball after she decided not to enter her name into the 2024 WNBA draft. Neither she nor Mulkey addressed her departure publicly until Thursday, when the LSU women’s basketball team hosted its year-end banquet inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“Her aspirations were to get drafted this year,” Mulkey said, “and she realized, ‘I need another year, and I need to go back to a place where I can relax and get back to my normal position.’
“And what do you do? You hug her, and you wish her well.”
Mulkey commended Van Lith’s decision to transfer to LSU and play a new position.
At Louisville, where she spent the first three years of her career, Van Lith played most of her games in an off-ball scoring role. But during her senior year, she was the Tigers’ starting point guard and primary ball handler.
While Van Lith adjusted to the new role, nearly all of her scoring numbers declined.
She took seven fewer shots per game than she did during her junior season and scored eight fewer points per contest. She also shot 38% from the field, a career low, and scored at least 20 points in only four games.
Mulkey said that Van Lith “lived up to her commitment” to play one season at LSU. She also praised the transfer guard’s work ethic and applauded her willingness to step outside her comfort zone.
“She wanted to improve her strengths by coming to LSU with a goal of expanding her game by learning a position that I played my entire life,” Mulkey said, “because she knows at the next level that's her only chance – to be able to tell them somewhat, ‘I can handle the ball if you need me to.’”
Including Van Lith, LSU has now lost three players to the transfer portal. Two freshmen, Janae Kent and Angelica Velez, decided to transfer after playing small roles for the 2023-2024 Tigers. So far, LSU has added one player from the portal: a former Arkansas forward named Jersey Wolfenbarger.
“She had to embrace a change in her mindset of not shooting it 20-30 times a game,” Mulkey said, “but finding who's open and getting them the ball. And sometimes it was hard because she would be pressured, and she'd be pounding the heck out of that ball.”
“Hailey Van Lith is one of the hardest working players that I've ever coached,” Mulkey said.
