Preview: NCAA Tournament Second Round

Sunday, March 23

Fort Worth, Texas

5 PM

TCU

Louisville

Tickets

Preview: NCAA Tournament Second Round

3/22/2025 3:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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TCU faces Louisville with ticket to the Sweet 16 on the line

FORT WORTH – No. 2 seed TCU looks to become the first team in school history to reach the third round of the NCAA Tournament when it hosts No. 7 Louisville at 5 p.m. on Sunday from Schollmaier Arena.

The Horned Frogs ousted No. 15 FDU, 73-51, on Friday before 6,464 fans and earned its first Tournament victory since 2006. The announced crowd was the fourth-largest to ever attend a TCU women's basketball game.

The clash with the Cardinals pits TCU guard Hailey Van Lith against her former school. Van Lith led Louisville to 81 victories, three Elite Eight appearances and a Final Four run in 2022 across her three seasons in the Bluegrass State.

She has since enjoyed her best collegiate campaign in 2024-25 in her first and only season in TCU purple. Van Lith was announced as both a USBWA and AP third team All-American for the first time in her career on Wednesday. She is one of only two players in the country and the only player still competing in March Madness who has tallied at least 600 points and 180 assists this season. Van Lith is shooting a career-best 45 percent from the field and has more than doubled her assist per game average from her tenure at Louisville. She is averaging 5.4 dimes per night ahead of Sunday's matchup after dishing out 2.4 per game as a Cardinal.

Sunday's victor advances to the Birmingham 3 regional and faces either No. 3 seed Notre Dame or No. 6 seed Michigan on Saturday in the Sweet 16.

The Game
Teams: #2 TCU (32-3, 16-2 Big 12) vs. ##7 Louisville (22-10, 13-5 ACC)
Date: 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 23
Location: Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas

Game Coverage
Television
ESPN

Brenda VanLengen, Play-by-Play
Andrea Lloyd, Analyst

Radio
88.7 KTCU FM

Chris Blake, Play-by-Play

Opening Tip

TCU won its first NCAA Tournament game in 19 years with Friday's 22-point victory over FDU.
The Horned Frogs have never reached the Sweet 16 of the men's or women's NCAA Tournament.
Hailey Van Lith led Louisville to the 2022 Final Four and a pair of Elite Eight appearances (2021, 2023) over her three-year run in the Bluegrass State.
Van Lith staked the Cardinals to an 81-21 combined overall record across her stay in Kentucky.
Van Lith graduated in three years with her Bachelor of Science degree in finance from Louisville in 2023.
Van Lith averaged 23.8 points per game for Louisville in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Van Lith and Sedona Prince first faced one another in the Sweet 16 of the 2021 Big Dance when both players were freshmen at Louisville and Oregon. The Cardinals won 60-42.
Notably, Van Lith and Prince's head-to-head was also Mark Campbell's final game as associate head coach at Oregon. The game was played on March 28, 2021. He accepted the head coaching position at Sacramento State 19 days later.

Frog Focus

TCU is 11-3 vs. NCAA Tournament participants and 8-2 against the AP Top 25. The eight ranked wins are tied with Notre Dame for the fifth-most in the country.
The Horned Frogs' combined 24-game year-over win improvement over the last two seasons is the largest of any Power Conference team.
TCUs 32 victories are tied with Texas for the most of any team remaining in the Big Dance.
TCU has led at halftime in an NCAA-leading 33 games and 25 straight.
The Frogs are only team in America ranking in the top 10 in 3-pointers (2nd, 334), 3-pointers per game (8th, 9.5) and 3-point percentage (8th, .375).
TCU has reached double figures in 3-pointers in 17 games this season, the second-most of any team, and 33 times overall in the Campbell era.
TCU's 646 threes over the last two seasons are the most ever by a Big 12 team in a two-year period and are the fourth-most of any D1 program since 2023.
TCU scored 74 points per game vs. Big 12 opposition after averaging 62.2 in 2023-24. The +11.8 points per game increase in league play was the sixth-largest in all of Division I basketball.
TCU had four players score in double figures for the third straight game and 14th time this season vs. FDU. The Horned Frogs are undefeated this season and 23-1 under Campbell when four players finish with 10-plus points.
TCU dished out 18 assists in Friday's win. The Frogs have finished with 18-or-more dimes now in 21 games this season, tied for the fifth-most of any team in America.
TCU boasts the fourth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country (1.57). The Frogs are also one of three teams ranking in the top 10 in assist-to-turnover ratio, assists (7th, 660) and assists per game (7th, 18.9).
The Frogs' average 12 turnovers per game, the 13th-fewest in the country. TCU is one of three Power Conference teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament giving the ball away 12 times or less per game. The others are UConn and NC State.
TCU's eight senior or graduate level players average 63.2 combined points per game. The net senior scoring average ranks seventh among all D1 programs and first at the Power Conference level.
TCU has held 28-of-34 teams overall and 18-of-21 Big 12 foes below their season scoring average. Fourteen teams have scored 50-or-fewer points vs. the Horned Frogs' defense.
Van Lith has finished with 15 points and five assists in 15 games, the second-most of any player still playing NCAA Tournament basketball behind only Kentucky's Georgia Amoore (20).
Van Lith has scored 20-plus in eight of her career 18 Tournament games.
Van Lith has played in 18 career NCAA Tournament games, most among all active DI players. Her 57 made free-throws in NCAA Tournament games also rank first.
Van Lith is tied with Paige Bueckers for the most 20-point games in NCAA Tournament play among active players. She has delivered 49 career 20-point performances, the fifth-most of any player.
Van Lith is one of 12 players nationally with a 1.9 assist-to-turnover ratio and at least 185 assists.
Van Lith's 188 assists are the most ever in a season by a Horned Frog.
Prince has strung an NCAA-leading seven double-doubles vs. ranked teams.
Prince is averaging 18.4 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game opposite the AP Top 25.
Prince is one of only two players averaging a double-double vs. ranked teams.
Prince posted her 16th double-double of the season and fourth in her last five games vs. FDU, finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks.
Prince is averaging 13 rebounds per game over TCU's last five tilts.
Prince ranks third nationally in blocks (102, 3.0 bpg). She has finished with three-or-more blocks on 18 occasions and recorded eight games with at least five rejections. Her 18 multi-block games are the third-most of any player in America.
Conner ranks second nationally in 3-pointers (122) and 3-pointers per game (3.5).
Conner averages 4.5 threes per game at home. She has connected four-plus times from downtown in 22 of her 35 career games at Schollmaier Arena, including Friday's win vs. FDU, where she finished 4-9 from deep.
Conner led all scorers with 23 points vs. FDU. Her 23 points were the second-most in an NCAA Tournament game by a Horned Frog.
Conner ranks eighth in the country in 3-point percentage (.452). She is the only D1 players ranking in the top 10 in 3-pointers, 3-pointers per game and 3-point percentage.

Series Notes: Louisville

TCU and Louisville were members of the Conference USA from 2002-05.
The Horned Frogs defeated Louisville 60-41 to win the Conference USA tournament on March 6, 2005, in the teams' most recent meeting.
TCU Athletics Hall of Famer Sandora Irvin led all players with 21 points in TCU's championship triumph over the Cardinals, scoring 14 in the second half.
The last time the Horned Frogs and Cardinals collided in Fort Worth came during the semifinals of the 2004 Conference USA tournament. Sandora posted a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double to pace TCU.
Agnes Emma-Nnopu was a freshman on the Stanford squad that ousted the Hailey Van Lith-led Cardinals from the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Stanford downed Louisville 78-63 in the Elite Eight on its way to capturing the NCAA Championship.
In addition to Emma-Nnopu and Sedona Prince, Madison Conner has also tussled with Louisville and Van Lith previously. Conner faced Van Lith and the Cardinals as a sophomore at Arizona on Nov. 12, 2021, in a neutral site affair in Sioux Falls, S.D. Louisville earned a 61-59 overtime victory behind 19 points from Van Lith.
Maddie Scherr averaged 20 points per game across two battles with Louisville during her junior and senior seasons at Kentucky from 2023-24. She collected a game-high 22 points in a 73-61 loss to Louisville on Dec. 10, 2023.

A Win over the Cardinals Would…

Make TCU 3-0 vs. the ACC this season.
Spike TCU's all-time record vs. Louisville to 5-2.
Count as TCU's 11th win over a team that has spent multiple weeks in the AP Top 25.
Extend the Horned Frogs home winning streak to 24 games dating back to Feb. 13, 2024.
Put TCU within two victories of matching its longest winning streak in program history (14 games), set by the 2023-24 team in Mark Campbell's inaugural season as head coach.
Tie TCU for the sixth-most victories in a season by a Big 12 team and make the 2024-25 Horned Frogs squad one of 12 in league history to win 33 games.
Boost TCU's combined year-over win improvement in the Campbell era to 25 games.
Signify the fifth time a Campbell-led team has reached the Sweet 16 when including his tenure as associate head coach at Oregon.
Augment TCU's all-time NCAA Tournament record to 7-9.

NCAA Tournament Notables

TCU is aiming to become the first team in school history to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
The Horned Frogs' snapped the fourth-longest NCAA Tournament drought of any team in the field (15 years) with their automatic berth into the Big Dance.
TCU is the only Power Four conference team and one of 15 in the field that won an outright regular season conference championship and its conference tournament. The others are UConn, Florida Gulf Coast, Montana State, High Point, Green Bay, Fairfield, Grand Canyon, Ball State, Norfolk State, Fairleigh Dickinson, Tennessee Tech, Lehigh, UNC Greensboro and Southern.
TCU, along with No. 3 seed Kentucky, is one of only two programs to make it to March Madness within two seasons of finishing in last place in their respective leagues.
TCU was one of seven Big 12 teams to enter the NCAA Tournament with at least 31 wins.
Mark Campbell is one of only two head coaches in the NCAA Tournament to win 30 games within two seasons of taking over his/her respective program. The other is Chelsea Lyles of Florida Gulf Coast.
Campbell is the only Power Four conference head coach in the field to lead his/her team to an undisputed regular season conference championship within the first two seasons at his/her respective school.
TCU's 11-game year-over win improvement is the largest out of all Power Four conference participants. The Frogs' spike of 10 victories from 2023-24 is tied with Tennessee Tech for the third-largest in the field. Only Fairleigh Dickinson (15 wins) and Montana State (13 wins) have enjoyed greater increases.
Three of the Horned Frogs' six NCAA Tournament triumphs have come as the lower-seeded team.
TCU earned the university's 13th NCAA Tournament win when including the men's program in Friday's 73-51 victory over FDU.
Ashley Davis scored a team NCAA Tournament record 24 points vs. No. 7 seed Ole Miss on March 18, 2007.
Including the WNIT and WBIT, TCU's all-time postseason record stands at 20-17.
TCU is making its 18th postseason appearance in 48 years of existence.
Eight members of the Horned Frogs' roster appeared in a combined 58 tournament games before transferring to TCU. The eight players produced a 44-18 (.709) NCAA Tournament record from 2021-24.
Hailey Van Lith has advanced all four of her teams to the Elite Eight and guided Louisville to the 2022 Final Four her sophomore season.
Agnes Emma-Nnopu and Madison Conner both competed in the 2021 NCAA Championship, with Emma-Nnopu earning a ring in Stanford's title game triumph over Arizona.
Donovyn Hunter (Oregon State) and Taylor Bigby (USC) joined Van Lith in the 2024 Elite Eight. Combined with Conner and Emma-Nnopu, five of TCU's 13 active players have reached the NCAA quarterfinals.
Campbell's career NCAA Tournament record stands at 13-6 when including his tenures as associate head coach at Oregon (2014-21) and an assistant coach at Oregon State (2010-14).
Campbell and TCU associate head coach Xavier Lopez give the Horned Frogs five combined players or coaches with Final Four familiarity. Campbell and Lopez helped guide Oregon to its first NCAA semifinal in 2019.
Campbell-led teams are 10-0 as the higher-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament.
TCU is the third program Campbell has helped lead to the NCAA Tournament within his first two years in town. Both Oregon State (2012) and Sacramento State (2023) earned berths in Campbell's second season.