NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 3 SEMIFINAL - NOTRE DAME VS TCU

March 28, 2025

Sedona Prince

Madison Conner

Hailey Van Lith

Legacy Arena

TCU Horned Frogs

Sweet 16 Pregame Media Conference

MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Sedona, you had 20 and 20 that first game. Looking back, what was working for you that game, and how do you replicate that performance tomorrow?

SEDONA PRINCE: Yeah. I mean, it was a long time ago. Cayman Islands was, what, our ninth, tenth game maybe? Yeah, super early.

Yeah, we watched a lot of film on that game, and I think it was crazy when they told me I had 20-20-8 after the game. I didn't really believe it because to me I thought I played very poorly. I took a lot of shots that I shouldn't have taken, some fadeaways and stuff and kind of shying away from contact.

I took it into that's amazing. It's a baseline. I know how much I've gotten so much better and grown so much since that point of the season, and I just kind of know what I'm able to do and how much better I can be.

Yeah, it's cool, though. It was a long time ago, so it's hard to think about that, but yeah, I'm just going to go out and fight for my team.

Q. For all of you, but Sedona, continuing with what you just said, Olivia Miles said earlier this morning when she watched that game film, she cringed watching it again and that their team has totally changed and it felt like ten years ago. How has your team changed since November, and how have you seen the improvement?

SEDONA PRINCE: Yeah, massively. We've been through a lot of just very tough, physical games, but games that have really challenged us as a team and how this growth in the area of beating traps, right? A lot of teams try to junk it up on us and make us force turnovers, and at that point in the season we were very, very poor at that. Now we are much more skilled. We've had a lot of practice.

We're a much more mature team. We've had girls like Donovyn Hunter. We were watching the shots in the first half, and a lot of shots didn't fall in that game, and now Donovyn Hunter is a sniper from three. Taylor Bigby has made a massive jump in her role and what she's able to do with us. So we play much better as a team together. We have a lot of effort from every single person that comes on the floor.

Yeah, we are also a completely different team and have grown so much.

MADISON CONNER: Yeah, I think we're really a whole complete different team at this point. We also watched the film. Not until the second half did it start clicking for us. The third quarter we had a really big run, but like Sedona said, we missed a whole bunch of shots that we usually make. We were turning the ball over at a high clip, and they were able to get out in transition.

I think tomorrow is going to be a really good battle between two teams that played at the beginning of the season. It's a whole different game now.

HAILEY VAN LITH: Yeah, it was one of our first games in a neutral location too, like outside of -- our first big game together was at home. I think it was one of those environments where we were learning to play, where we weren't at home, a big-time matchup. We've grown a lot in that area since then.

Q. Hailey, you've heard the saying it's hard to beat a team twice, but how did those lessons from playing Baylor three different times in three different scenarios, do you feel like that can help you for Saturday too?

HAILEY VAN LITH: Yeah, for sure. I think it's hard to beat teams twice and multiple times within a season when you have a tendency to be complacent. This team, we don't really have an issue with that.

We're fine with it being a dogfight every game. We don't hope that we win by 20. We don't hope they miss every shot. We're okay with it being a close game. We know it's going to be a fight. We're ready to fight. I feel very confident in our mindset.

Now, if we make every shot or miss every shot, that's not always in your control, but our mindset is going to be right going into the game.

Q. Hailey, Mark was just here talking about maybe early on in your time at TCU, maybe you had a wall up as you were kind of getting adjusted. Kind of what was that process like for you? When do you remember kind of feeling comfortable, feeling like yourself at TCU?

HAILEY VAN LITH: Yeah, I mean, it's been a great time here. It has been a journey, a unique journey in itself for me. When your past is different than your current situation, you have certain reservations and preconceived notions about how things should be. It did, it took me a while to let Coach Campbell in.

I think he was -- I couldn't be more grateful for his servant leadership to where he gave me a ton of grace and allowed me to go through that process of slowly, you know, letting him in and helping him understand my mind. It was hard.

Even though I put certain numbers up at the beginning of the year, I still didn't really feel like myself, and I was trying to find who Hailey was or who I thought that I was. He was very patient with me. We had a ton of film sessions, personal conversations, and I think what really helped me was he also would share with me, like, his coaching journey and how he processes it and how he can relate to me in certain ways.

I'm very grateful for that relationship. There definitely was some tough times where we weren't understanding each other, but couldn't be more grateful for who he is as a person to work through that with me.

Q. You three are transfer portal veterans, so to speak. There's almost 1,000 kids in there already for this year's portal. What advice would you give them having gone through this, if you had actually a chance to be in control of the portal are there things you would change to make it better for athletes who do enter it?

SEDONA PRINCE: I would say in this new era, I mean, right before rev share and stuff, don't go for the money. It's just going to fail. I know a lot of kids are trying to get paid, as they should. That's how it should be. That's how it always should have been. But be very smart. Pick a place where -- we didn't come from money at TCU and now look where we are now. We're so happy. We love playing the game. Our careers have kind of been revived in a sense. Now we'll get to play longer and with more opportunities.

Go somewhere where you are happy, where you are loved, where you are seen, where you know you can grow in your game and be in an environment where you are just loved, right, and given confidence and grace. But, then, also, get your bag, right? Don't skimp on that. It's what you should do, but there's a good mix of it. Just don't go for one or the other.

Q. Especially with a tough Notre Dame team like you guys saw, they played a pretty good game the last game they played. What did you see on the scout of them and especially with the last game and the way they dominated?

MADISON CONNER: I think they're a great team. We kind of know their tendencies and know them a little bit better because we play them, but obviously they are a different team. It's a different ball game now.

I just think they have a whole bunch of skilled guards, skilled guard play. We have to be able to lock them up and play good defense and take care of the ball. I think that's one big thing they try to do is force turnovers and force kind of chaos on defense, so we have to take care of the ball and don't let them get out in transition because they're great in transition. We have to play our five-on-five game and just be very poised, and yeah...

SEDONA PRINCE: Yeah. I mean, you know, they are very, very -- a different team than us, right, but they also have a senior leadership like us, or some, right, with Maddy Westbeld, and she's back. We didn't play against her.

So it's going to be one possession by one possession. We're not thinking of it as a full game. When that ball tips off, it's going to be what can we do to get the ball in the bucket and get a stop, right? Every possession we'll go one at a time and just fight the whole game.

We don't want our season to end. We don't want to leave each other, for this to be over, for this ride. We're going to fight as hard as we can for 40 minutes straight.

HAILEY VAN LITH: Like my two buddies up here said, you know, both teams have stars. Both teams have firepower. It's going to be about toughness. It's going to be about who wants to practice on Sunday more.

I'm excited to see how it plays out, and I think we're willing to accept the challenge of winning the toughness battle.

Q. Hailey, what have you learned both about what sort of guard you are? Because you've been in different systems, and you've had to adjust to a lot of different things. What have you learned about what sort of a leader you are based on the different, like, parts of your career and even USA Basketball? If you could maybe talk about both of those things.

HAILEY VAN LITH: At the bottom line, at the end of the day, I think in my DNA I impact winning. I've played in pretty much every conference, every style of play, all different kinds of teammates, all different kinds of coaches. I've been the old one. I've been the youngest one. I've played at the Olympics. Any environment, I've played in it.

I think I do a pretty good job of helping my team get wins, and that's the name of the game. That's what you're employed to do at the next level is to help your team win. So I think that in my DNA that's what I do. Whatever form I have to take to make that happen, at this point in my career I'm willing to take that form.

When I was younger, you are more stubborn. You're not as open-minded, but you know, I've matured. I've grown. I think I've evolved into someone who just loves to win. So I really think that that's my essence.