Three Takeaways From Saturday's Sweet 16 March Madness Games

Published 3 days ago• 4 minute read

The Big 12 Conference had two teams playing in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

No. 2 TCU 71, No. 3 Notre Dame 62

No. 1 USC 67. No. 5 Kansas State 61

Here are three takeaways from the latest day of men’s basketball action.

The transfer portal is creating an interesting dynamic for certain players. For instance, how will we define the impact of a player on a program if they only play there one year?

Well, Hailey Van Lith is providing a template.

She went off on Saturday in TCU’s Sweet 16 victory over Notre Dame, the Horned Frogs’ second win over the Fighting Irish this year. Van Lith had 26 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

At one point, Van Lith’s father was so excited by a 3-pointer made by his daughter that he demanded a chest bump from no less than Jalen Suggs. You may remember him as the Gonzaga player that hit that incredible game-winning 3-pointer in the 2021 national semifinals.

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) March 29, 2025

USA Today reported that Suggs and Van Lith dated in 2021. Perhaps that’s why dad could elicit the chest bump so easily?

That really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that TCU is in the women’s Elite Eight for the first time in program history. Van Lith is now the first player in women’s college basketball history to take three different teams to the Elite Eight (Louisville and LSU were the other two).

She also reached the top of one key list with the performance.

— TCU Women’s Basketball (@tcuwbb) March 29, 2025

There’s also this list of accomplishments.

Hailey Van Lith:
• First-team All-Big 12
• Big 12 Player of the Year
• Big 12 Newcomer of the Year
• Single season assist record holder
• Single season scoring record holder
With 26 points against Notre Dame, HVL just led TCU to its first Elite 8 appearance ever. pic.twitter.com/zZqaePRDo4
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 29, 2025

It might just be the best single-season performance in program history. Lauren Heard left TCU as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,006 points and that was just a few years ago. She deserves to have her jersey number hoisted up in Schollmaier Arena one day.

The question is whether Van Lith’s No. 10 deserves to be up there, too?

It’s an interesting thought exercise in this new world of college basketball. Whether you agree or not, Van Lith’s impact on the program — and the program’s impact on her — in just one season is unassailable.

Next? Texas. Yep, the Horned Frogs get their old Southwest Conference and Big 12 rivals. For the first time in a long time, this feels like an equal showdown between the two programs.

Her reaction with seven seconds left in this clip is one of the most understated I’ve seen in this situation.

Biggest shot in program history ️ pic.twitter.com/JSYDxqpM0t
— TCU Women’s Basketball (@tcuwbb) March 30, 2025

If the injury to JuJu Watkins made USC any easier to face, the Trojans didn’t show it.

Kansas State and USC clearly wanted to make sure that Ayoka Lee and Kiki Iriafen didn’t impact the game. The defenses were designed to limit both centers and it worked. Lee had 12 points and nine rebounds. Iriafen — after an enormous game in the second round — had just six points.

So, it was Kennedy Smith for USC and Serena Sundell for Kansas State who owned the direction of the game. Smith had 19 points. Sundell had 22 points with six rebounds and six assists.

The game came down to the final minute. K-State had a chance to tie on a 3-pointer that didn’t fall, and the game just slipped away from there.

If there is any one number that sticks out in this game its 15. That’s how many turnover Kansas State had. USC had only eight. The Trojans love to pressure passing lanes and they extend that pressure all the way to halfcourt.

In key moments, that pressure made the difference.

K-State won’t have a team like this again. Lee is, finally, done with school. Sundell is also a senior. So is Gisela Sanchez, Brylee Glenn, Jaelyn Glenn, Temira Poindexter and Kennedy Taylor. The Wildcats will look completely different next season.

But this team, through the years, has been wonderful to watch. Lee set college basketball on fire with a 61-point game. Sundell’s development as a player has put her in position to play professionally.

Forgive the TCU Horned Frogs for keeping receipts. They’ve never been this far in the NCAA Tournament and, well, all of these people were wrong about how far they would get.