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TCU guard Hailey Van Lith has been named a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year award, according to the award's official X account. The trophy is given annually to the nation's most outstanding basketball player and has been recognizing collegiate women since 1983.
Van Lith led the Horned Frogs, which began the campaign unranked, to their first-ever Big 12 regular-season championship just two years after they finished last place in the conference. She averaged 21 points per game alongside 4.7 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 steals during the Big 12 Tournament while shooting 64.7% and 41.2% from the 3-point line, helping TCU eventually top No. 2 Baylor in the title game.
The graduate student is the first player in Big 12 conference history to be picked as both the top player and newcomer in the same year. Van Lith is also the only player who ranks in the Big 12's top 10 across four statistical categories, averaging 17.9 points, 5.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The list of contenders will drop to four the week of March 24-28, and the winner will be announced during Final Four weekend. Van Lith was first put on the Naismith Trophy Women's Watch List when she was a sophomore at Louisville in 2021.
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Van Lith is also a candidate for the Nancy Lieberman Award and John R. Wooden Award, given to the nation's top point guard and top player, respectively, and has already been chosen as the Big 12 Championship MVP and a member of the 2025 Naismith Women's Player of the Year midseason team.
She played three seasons at Louisville and one at LSU before joining TCU for her fifth and final collegiate season.
TCU women's head coach Mark Campbell was selected alongside Van Lith as a semifinalist for Coach of the Year after leading the team to its largest single-season in-conference win increase. They also tied the Texas Longhorns for the most total wins in the NCAA this year.
Van Lith is competing with USC's JuJu Watkins for the Player of the Year award. The other semifinalists include Kentucky's Georgia Amoore, UCLA's Lauren Betts, Texas' Madison Booker, UConn's Paige Bueckers, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, Vanderbilt's Ta'Niya Latson, and LSU's Aneesah Morrow.
