Case File No.1: Hailey Van Lith

 

Hailey Van Lith (10). Photo Credit: Matt Cashore/USA Today Sports.

Welcome to the S Files! To start, the "S" stands for scouting. The name is a play of words on the TV show The X-Files. This is a blog page that I will dedicate to providing scouting reports on athletes, whether it's football, basketball, wrestling, etc. For my inaugural post, I'll dig into my first case file on Hailey Van Lith. 

I was on my YouTube feed last night, and I came across a thumbnail that had the statistics of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and then-Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith, and on a whim, I decided to do a scouting report on the now LSU Lady Tiger.

 

 Position: Guard

HT: 5–7

College: LSU

Class: Senior

Credentials:

2x All-ACC (2022, 2023)

ACC All-Freshman Team (2021) 

Strengths:

-Well-rounded skill set.

-Able to absorb contact and finish when attacking.

-Keeps her dribble and usually makes the right decision in traffic.

-Jump shot is respectable (I’ll go into more details in the final analysis).

-Can create her own shot; loves using the jab step. She has a quick release. Can shoot off the dribble and spotting up.

-Good moving without the ball, finds ways to get open, but seems to be more effective with the ball.

-Couldn't find a lot of defensive highlights, but from what I’ve seen, she gives effort as far as playing passing lanes.

Weaknesses:

-I don’t see any glaring weakness in her game, but at 5–7, chances are she’s going to struggle against bigger guards.

-Averaged a career high in assists (3.2) last year, but as a guard, I would like to see her numbers increase in that area.

Final Analysis

Hailey has a well-rounded game offensively. She’s a natural born scorer who is a good passer with good court vision, but I would like to see her facilitate more without compromising her scoring prowess. She comes off as a volume scorer; her jump shot looks pure from what I’ve seen, but her numbers doesn’t quite match up with that assessment (42% FG 34% 3P so far) which leads me to say that while her jump shot isn’t the greatest, it’s respectable.

Overall, I think her addition makes the current NCAA Women’s champs LSU Lady Tigers more dangerous. I think the rich just got richer. Coming off a career year — she had career highs across the board: games and minutes played, points, FT percentage, rebounds, and steals — if she continues to improve her game, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s a lottery pick in next year’s WNBA draft.