TCU’s Triple Threat: How three transfers have helped make Horned Frogs a national contender
In April 2024, Hailey Van Lith, Sedona Prince and Madison Conner gathered in one of the offices at TCU’s basketball practice facility.
There were neither coaches nor other players present. Prince and Conner were trying their best to sell Van Lith on playing for the Horned Frogs.
Conner and Prince were coming off the best seasons of their career in 2023 when they led the Horned Frogs to a 21-12 finish after the program won just eight games in 2022. The duo thought they could achieve more in 2024, but they needed a player like Van Lith to seal the deal.
“To hear about Hailey Van Lith, she’s such a massive name,” Prince said at the recent Big 12 Tournament. “Her spirit going into that room and just talking to her, we were immediately like, ‘We could do something special here.’ And the way she spoke to us, she was like, ‘I want to make history, I want to win, be part of a great team.’
“And that’s when I knew this was going to be something really, really special.”
That meeting set the course for the best season in program history as Van Lith, Conner and Prince formed a formidable combo that rivals any other trio in the country.
After posting a 31-3 record, winning the Big 12 regular-season and conference tournament championships, there are a multitude of reasons why TCU could go far in the NCAA Tournament.
But the three biggest are Van Lith, Conner and Prince.
Their journeys to Fort Worth were as different as their games on the court, but they’ve all come together to help TCU redefine its program.
Prince: The trailblazer
Prince was the first domino to fall when she committed to new head coach Mark Campbell and the Horned Frogs on April 17, 2023. Prince became a national figure in 2021 when she exposed the differences in how females athletes were treated at the NCAA Tournament compared to their male counterparts.
Her social media videos led to sweeping changes across the sport. But when Prince tore a ligament in her elbow in 2022 at Oregon, she thought her career was over. It was the second time she had to miss a season because of an injury and the wear and tear took a toll on her mentally and physically.
“I was out of college close to eight months recovering from an injury,” Prince said. “After my last injury with my elbow I thought God was giving me a sign that college basketball wasn’t for me. I had a dream since the fourth grade, watching Brittney Griner and Breanna Stewart, I wanted to be them.
“But after injury after injury, after setback after setback I wondered if this was really for me.”
When she learned Campbell was the new TCU women’s basketball coach in Fort Worth, she took it as a sign that she still had more to give the game. Her relationship with Campbell went back to their days at Oregon when Campbell was an assistant coach. There’s only one coach Prince was willing to play for and it was Campbell.
“Two weeks before the (WNBA) draft date I heard Mark got the job and it just clicked that that was for me,” Prince said. “Playing for Mark for two seasons at Oregon, he was the peacemaker in the locker room. He was the person we went to if we were struggling or didn’t understand why we were getting yelled at.
“Everybody that went there, went for Mark.”
Prince already had received enough signs that TCU was the right place for her, but when she took an official visit at the same time as Conner, that meeting would end up being the final confirmation both players needed.
“We kind of hit it off right away,” Conner said. “We went to dinner together, we went and hung out. When we were hanging out it was like let’s do this. She was telling me how great of a guy Mark is and she said ‘Let’s go make history.’ “
Prince was a defensive anchor and rebounder at Oregon, but since arriving in Fort Worth, she’s become a star. In 2023, she started 21 games and she averaged a career-high 19.7 points and 9.7 rebounds. TCU went 21-12 in her first season.
She’s been just as good in 2024, earning first All-Big 12 honors and a spot on the All-Defense team after averaging 17.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks. The 6-foot-7 center is a double-double stat machine and one of the most unique players in the sport.
She’s often the tallest player on the court, but also has the skill to match. She’s capable of knocking down mid-range jumpers and is one of the best finishers in the pick and roll in the country.
Her presence in the paint makes TCU special.
Conner: The sniper
Van Lith: The warrior
Why it all works
Their paths to Fort Worth were different, but each of the big three had something to prove when they signed with TCU. But how did egos not get in the way, especially after the seasons Prince and Conner had in 2023?
The answer is fit.
We’ve seen all-star trios in the NBA collapse because all of the talent didn’t fit together. But the Horned Frogs’ star trio complements one another perfectly.
Prince’s dominance in the paint is boosted by having shooters like Conner on the wing. Do you really double-team Prince and leave a shooter like Conner open?
Conner’s constantly able to get open shots because of the pressure Van Lith and Prince put on defenses. It also helps that her teammates love to feed Conner, especially in transition.
Van Lith? She and Prince run the pick-and-roll offense like two teammates who have been together for much longer than a season. With Conner’s spacing, Van Lith often has enough room to get buckets from anywhere.
“I think all of our games complement each other,” Van Lith said. “We all need each other to do what we do well. I need Madison and Sedona to play well, I can’t take all the shots and not let them do their thing. That’s going to hurt our team.
“Another thing that makes us very productive is we don’t need to have our best game every night for us to feel good about our games. Me and Madi could both have 25 and Sedona could have 10 and she’s going to come out the next game and still do her job. You can have a down game and then go out in the next and perform. No one is in their feelings.”
The skill and maturity of the trio gives TCU a chance to achieve more history in the NCAA Tournament like winning the first tournament game for the program since 2006 or making the program’s first appearance in the Sweet Sixteen.
This opportunity is what Campbell envisioned when he signed the three of them.
“In this era of NIL, Madison and Sedona, they came to TCU and I didn’t have a dollar,” Campbell said. “They came to TCU because they wanted to build something and they had a chip on their shoulder. Hailey didn’t come here because of any money, Hailey loves basketball more than anything.
“These three came to TCU for the right the reasons and it’s been magical.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
