Louisville women’s basketball has added an elite guard to their 2020 class. Hailey Van Lith, a point guard out of Cashmere, WA, chose the Cards over Baylor.
✔️ Consensus Top-10 player in Class of 2020
✔️ 4x Gold Medalist
✔️ USA Today All-USA First Team
✔️ Gatorade Player of the Year (WA)Get all the details on Hailey Van Lith ⤵️
#GoCards https://t.co/dmdHBAsZsu— Louisville WBB (@UofLWBB) November 16, 2019
Van Lith is a 5’9 5 Star guard that is ranked as the number 2 overall prospect by Prospects Nation and the number 8 overall prospect by ESPN HoopGurlz.
Van Lith played for Team USA in the 2019 U19 World Cup. As a starter for Team USA, Van Lith averaged 9.1 points per game and 2.3 assists per game. She helped lead Team USA to the Gold Medal.
After the 2018-2019 season, Van Lith was named the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Washington. During that season, she averaged a whopping 34.4 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game, 5.2 steals per game, and 4.9 assists per game.
Highlights
Van Lith is more of a combo guard. She’s very good at scoring from all three levels. She’s a lefty and her shooting stroke is smooth and pure from beyond the arc or in the mid-range. She seems most comfortable and at her best shooting off rhythm dribbles and off pullup mid-range jumpers.
Van Lith is ultra quick and a great ball handler. She understands how to change speeds and directions when she has the ball in her hand. This allows her to get to her sweet spots on the mid-range pullups and to get into the lane.
When Van Lith gets into the lane, she can go to the rim and finish or dish it to open teammates on the wing or around the basket. When she goes to score, she can get the ball into the hoop with a variety of shots. This allows her to score amongst the trees down low. Contact doesn’t bother her when she’s going into score either. She’s strong enough to finish through it. When defenses key on stopping her drives to the hoop by bringing extra defenders into her path, Van Lith displays great awareness and vision to find open teammates on the wing or down low for buckets.
One other ability to love about Van Lith is her rebounding. Even though she’s only 5’9, Van Lith is a tenacious rebounder. She’s not afraid to come in from the wing or out top and mix it up for rebounds.
Coach Jeff Walz got the crown jewel of a great recruiting class in Hailey Van Lith. She is a guard that reminds me a lot of former Louisville great Shoni Schimmel; a PG that can score, run the team, plays with an edge, and is absolutely fearless on the floor. She will provide a scoring punch and a toughness in the backcourt. I have a feeling Van Lith will become a fan favorite fairly quickly.
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