In early October, before any team’s habits were revealed to the world, Louisville began practice with a continuous shooting drill. Up and down the floor, sprinting into layups and midrange jumpers and 3-pointers, racing to a preset point total before the clock ran out. The Cardinals fell short on the first try, which was bad enough. When the second attempt was another failure, a heaviness set upon the Keuber Center. Like the air itself constricted, wringing all the oxygen out of the space.
The coaches weren’t happy. This was abundantly and vitriolically clear. They also were not alone in that. Hailey Van Lith stood on the baseline with hands on hips, annoyed and breathing heavy, shifting her weight from side to side. She waited for her opening. Then she filled the silence with the subtlety of a vault safe dropped from the mezzanine.
“If y’all can’t run, hold yourself accountable and sit out,” Van Lith declared to her teammates. “If you can’t hang, don’t run.”
So this is what LSU is getting, if anyone had any doubts, in the most consequential transfer portal result of the women’s college basketball offseason: A fire-breather in braids. A personality asteroid that won’t wipe out the atmosphere in Baton Rouge as much as turn it into colors heretofore…
