Five storylines to watch as TCU women’s basketball aims for the Final Four
After winning the Big 12 regular-season and conference tournament championships en route to the Elite Eight last year, the No. 17-ranked TCU women’s basketball team won’t be sneaking up on anyone this season.
The Horned Frogs evolved from a good story to a national contender in just two seasons under head coach Mark Campbell, and now the goal is to build off last year’s historic run.
The program already has made history this season, as its preseason ranking is the highest ever for the program, and TCU was also voted No. 1 in multiple preseason Big 12 polls.
With success comes expectations, and Campbell and the Horned Frogs are perfectly fine with a bigger spotlight this season, starting with the season opener against North Carolina AT&T at 4 p.m. Thursday at Schollmaier Arena.
“Every game you go in you’ve got a bull’s-eye on your back,” Campbell said. “That’s what great programs do that win year after year. They’re able to have a bull’s-eye, they’re able to compete knowing this is the other team’s biggest game of the season, and still deliver.”
Here are five storylines to watch for the Horned Frogs this season:
Replacing Hailey Van Lith
She was only here a year, but Hailey Van Lith quickly became an all-time fan favorite after being the engine to TCU’s magical season. Van Lith was an All-American, earned Big 12 Player and Newcomer of the Year and became a first-round pick in the 2025 WNBA draft.
How would TCU possibly replace one of the program’s most important athletes? The answer is signing another All-American with the arrival of Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles. The 5-foot-10 guard is one of the most decorated players in the country with multiple All-American and All-ACC honors on her resume, plus she helped lead the Fighting Irish to multiple Sweet 16 appearances, including last year when TCU upset Notre Dame in Birmingham, Alabama.
With Miles’ arrival, TCU has another elite lead guard, but her playing style won’t resemble Van Lith’s.
“They’re so different. I see more differences than similarities,” Campbell said. “The similarity is they’re both elite winners and elite competitors. They’re two of the best players in college, but their game? Hailey was a natural scorer that has learned to become a playmaker. Olivia, her vision and passing ability, is a gift that very few basketball players, men or women, have.”
If things go as planned Miles will be a top-five pick in next year’s WNBA draft, and her arrival already makes the Horned Frogs one of the must-watch teams in college basketball.
Reload, not rebuild
The Horned Frogs weren’t just tasked with replacing Van Lith. They also had to replace star center Sedona Prince, one of the nation’s best shooters in Madison Conner and the Swiss Army knife Agnes Emma-Nnopu. All three played vital roles alongside Van Lith in turning TCU around.
Campbell responded to their departures with another strong transfer portal class led by Miles, plus Kentucky center Clara Silva, Arizona State center Kennedy Basham, San Diego State guard Veronica Sheffey, Texas A&M guard Taliyah Parker and Cal forward Marta Suarez. The six-woman group is a good mix of experienced veterans and younger players who have upside.
“I personally think it’s the best portal class in the country,” Campbell said. “Our staff worked incredibly hard to land this talent.”
All should have major roles this season, and TCU should be much deeper than last season. The contributor who might be ready to make the biggest immediate impact is Suarez, a 6-3 graduate forward who started every game the past two seasons for Cal and was a member of the All-SEC freshman team in 2021 at Tennessee.
“Marta, she’s a beast down low. She loves to score,” junior guard Donovyn Hunter said.
The Horned Frogs also added three freshmen — 6-8 Australian center Sarah Portlock, 6-7 center Emily Hunter from Tennessee and 6-4 German guard Clara Bielefeld.
Key returners back
There will be a lot of new faces for TCU with the six transfers and three freshmen, but the Horned Frogs do return two key contributors from last year’s Elite Eight run. Senior wing Taylor Bigby started 25 games last year, while Hunter started 21 and began to emerge during the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments.
Hunter scored 18 points in the NCAA Tournament win over Louisville and 11 in the Big 12 tournament championship win over Baylor. She knows she’ll have a much higher usage rate on offense and spent her offseason training for a bigger workload.
“I’ve grown in my intentional thought process in terms of offense,” Hunter said. “I’m very defensive-minded, but this year I really emphasized on my ability to create one-on-one opportunities even if that’s not me scoring. That was a huge emphasis.”
Bigby had a late-season slump and fell out of the starting lineup, but at her best she’s a versatile defender and shot maker who will only add to TCU’s depth.
The Horned Frogs also brought back veteran forwards Natalie Mazurek and Aaliyah Roberson, but Roberson will be out for the season.
The X-factor?
Another returning player is Maddie Scherr, but the Kentucky transfer missed all of last season with an injury. The 5-10 graduate guard is healthy now, giving the Horned Frogs another experienced ballhandler who developed in a highly competitive conference.
Before she arrived at TCU, Scherr started 55 games for the Wildcats and averaged 12.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.9 steals per game. That type of production and experience is hard to find.
“She just does so many little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Miles said. “She helps our team out on both ends so much. She’s physical — it blows my mind. She’s going to do things on both ends of the court to help us win. If you’re really paying attention and you know ball, you know she’s a very good player for us.”
Lessons learned
The Horned Frogs didn’t lose much during their 34-4 campaign last season, but there was a common theme in the defeats to South Carolina, Texas and Kansas State. As skilled as TCU was, the Horned Frogs were unable to overcome the physicality and size of the Gamecocks and Longhorns, who each made the Final Four. Kansas State also used a physical, pressing style of defense to fluster TCU in Manhattan.
Campbell based the portal haul off of those losses. The first priority was to get bigger and deeper, which TCU did by adding the 6-7 Silva, 6-7 Basham and 6-3 Suarez.
Sheffey and Parker bring athleticism in the backcourt, and Sheffey’s defensive aptitude has already turned heads in practice. Parker was a top-60 recruit coming out of South Grand Prairie and led the school to the Class 6A state championship game in 2024.
From a personnel standpoint, TCU should be able to match any style of play.
“After playing Texas and South Carolina we really wanted to get some size,” Campbell said. “We were able to do that. Kennedy Basham and Clara Silva are going to be two great fives [centers] for us. We added a player we haven’t had here before. Marta Suarez is a playmaking four [power forward]. She’s a four-man with guard skills. She can shoot it, she can pass it. We have not had a kid like her here before. Taliyah Parker is a talented youngster and a really explosive kid.”
