NEW ORLEANS — Hailey Van Lith hails from the small Washington city of Cashmere, but she has become one of the faces of women's collegiate basketball over the past few years.
Now at Louisiana State University after previously playing at the University of Louisville, Van Lith is a key cog for a team at the precipice of a second trip to the Final Four in a row.
Van Lith took exception to a Los Angeles Times column that called the Tigers' Sweet 16 game against the University of California, Los Angeles a matchup of "sweethearts vs. villains." The column also described LSU's team as "dirty debutantes."
"A lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates," Van Lith said. "And, you know, I'm in a unique situation where I see with myself, you know, I'll talk trash, and I'll get a different reaction than if Angel (Reese, who is Black,) talks trash."
Van Lith said calling them dirty debutantes has nothing to do with sports.
"Some of the words that were used in that article were very sad and upsetting, and, you know, I didn't really—I actually didn't want us to—read the article before the game because hearing stuff like that, it's not right. And it's not that type of description of us isn't always motivating," Van Lith said.
The LA Times has since added a correction to the story, saying "The original version of this commentary did not meet Times editorial standards. It has been edited to remove language that was inappropriate and offensive. We apologize to the LSU basketball program and to our readers."
Reese took flack for her trash talk directed towards University of Iowa star Caitlin Clark during last year's national championship game, despite Clark repeatedly saying she wasn't personally offended by it.
Van Lith was not part of that LSU team, but she clearly is not afraid of standing up for her Black teammates and speaking her mind.
Now, she and her LSU teammates will rematch against Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, with a spot in the Final Four on the line.