Battle-tested No. 2 seed TCU women’s basketball has plenty of March Madness experience
The TCU women’s basketball program returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010 and typically that would mean a lack of postseason experience, but the Horned Frogs will be the exception.
Despite it being the first tournament run together for this group of players, most of TCU’s rotation is no stranger to deep runs in March Madness.
That includes Big 12 Player of the Year Hailey Van Lith, who helped lead Louisville to a Final Four and two Elite Eight appearances in her three seasons there. She also reached the Elite Eight last season with LSU.
Van Lith knows exactly what it will take for TCU to reach the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in program history.
“It takes a team that’s hot at the right time,” Van Lith said on Selection Sunday. “I think we have that going for us, we were the only team that won the regular season and then followed through and won the conference championship. It’s really about who is hot... we’re hot, we’re going to keep staying hot and do whatever we can to keep that edge.”
It’s not just Van Lith who has experience with the tournament. Forward Agnes Emma-Nnopu won a national championship with Stanford and reached another Final Four before transferring to TCU.
That experience is one of the reasons it’s been easy for Emma-Nnopu to embrace her role as the team’s glue girl. She’s a tenacious rebounder and defender and a to-notch shooter. Much of her impact doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but you need players like Emma-Nnopu in a single elimination tournament like this.
She’s a player that’s willing to do whatever needs to be done to win whether that’s scoring 12 points or grabbing 12 rebounds.
“March is a different beast,” Emma-Nnopu said. “I think we all understand that and we’re a very mature team, a veteran team. Everybody understands we’re not in the regular season, we’re in March and it’s one game, 40 minutes.”
First-team All-Big 12 standout Madison Conner is also no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. Conner reached the national title game in 2021 with Arizona and then made two more trips to the tournament with the Wildcats before transferring to TCU in 2023.
Sedona Prince and Mark Campbell reached the Sweet Sixteen during their time together at Oregon. Taylor Bigby helped USC reach the Elite Eight last season and Donovyn Hunter did the same as a freshman with Oregon State last season.
TCU isn’t just the oldest team in the country, they’re also one of the most experienced when it comes to postseason success. It’s made the job of Campbell a lot easier in the postseason.
“We’re so old and a group that’s battled tested,” Campbell said. “The Big 12 Tournament, three games in three days, a win or go home environment. Three times in a row against great teams, I think you got to see this team’s true DNA in the Big 12 Tournament and what they’re really made of.”
The Horned Frogs showed their grit and physicality in winning the conference tournament and if they can maintain that same intensity there’s no reason this experienced unit can’t reach the Sweet Sixteen,
TCU opens tournament play at 2:30 p.m. Friday against No. 15 seed Fairleigh Dickinson at Schollmaier Arena.
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 12:58 PM.
