BUCK U
Front and Center
TCU women’s basketball possesses something the men are still just wishing for.
BY BUCK D. ELLIOTT
Now that the dust has settled on an acceptable — but otherwise unremarkable — football season, we’re free to retreat to climate-controlled locales and discuss other Frog sports as we venture into 2025. Different from other years, which are traditionally centered on men’s basketball to start, all eyes are on the Lady Frog hoopers right now. Women’s college basketball in general has enjoyed contemporary popularity thanks to the star power of athletes like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, both of whom have since joined the professional ranks. TCU women’s hardwood profile arrived for the wrong reasons last season, as a roster decimated with injuries was forced to hold open student-body tryouts to fill their bench, which in the era of professional amateur athletics is one of the signs of a program’s apocalypse.
The shrewdest and most publicized off-season acquisition by second-year Head Coach Mark Campbell was the addition of point guard Hailey Van Lith. The graduate-student transfer has one of the most impressive resumes of any active collegiate player and as much celebrity cachet as any man or woman dribbling in a college jersey right now. The Olympic medalist was tabbed the top transfer player by ESPN rankings, and the splash signing was an indicator that Campbell was staying true to his track record of turning around programs hastily and effectively. Even with last year’s depleted roster, Campbell was able to log the longest win streak in TCU women’s hoops history (14) and secure an invitation and first-round win in the NIT.
That was then, and this now. Despite Van Lith’s star power and impressive stat line, it’s a different player with whom Campbell was able to reconnect and who has proved
the most pivotal piece. The difference between a promising squad and potential champion, Sedona Prince — a 6-foot-7 center — is the engine that makes this Frog truck rumble. Prince has accumulated her own celebrity. Aside from being a dominating baller and the eighth-ranked overall prospect out of high school, Prince became known as a pioneer in highlighting different and unequal facilities and investment between men’s and women’s hoops with her social media presence. The graduate student is playing with her third school. She spent her first year at Texas, where she rehabbed a broken leg suffered while playing for the U18 U.S. National Team, then she transferred to Oregon before graduating and returning to her home state to grace Frog fans with her grit this season.
Campbell was the associate head coach at Oregon for Prince’s first two seasons in Eugene, and their familiarity with each other is benefiting every hoop-head in Fort Worth. The Frog women are 21-2 so far this season. They lost only by three to second-ranked South Carolina and made a onepoint whoopsie at Oklahoma State last week. TCU leads the conference and shows no signs of slowing after winning against Baylor to snap a 37-game losing streak against the Bears. During the 21 games Prince has played in, she’s scored more than 20 points on 11 occasions and 30 or more twice. As expected, it’s also a center’s charge to rebound dominantly, which she does with impunity. The Liberty Hill native has 10 double-doubles (10 or more points plus 10 or more rebounds) this season. The team’s anchor even logged 20 and 20 against third-ranked Notre Dame, a win that catapulted her team into the conversation as a bona fide Elite Eight contender. Add in Prince’s 72 blocks for the season on top of her other gaudy stats, and she’s an irreplaceable force amid a team with guard play that’s borderline elite.
Van Lith compiles her own impressive stat lines. The graduate student has scored double digits in all but one game this season and is 13th in the nation for number of assists per tipoff. Both Prince and Van Lith are in the Top 50 for individual scoring averages. There’s also senior Madison Conner. In her second year with the Frogs, she continues her deadly sniper ways. She nabbed TCU’s record for made triples last season and is simply picking up where she left off with 83 so far and shooting a percentage just less than half from behind the arc. Conner logged 16 double-digit stat lines this season, along with three games in which she scored 29 or more. Coach Campbell has managed to fill other holes in the roster from his West Coast connections coaching for Oregon and Sacramento State.
As good as the guard play is, none of this works without Sedona Prince. If you’re an avid Buck U reader — which I really assume no one is, so I’ll expound — you’d know my most common and consistent criticism of TCU men’s basketball is Coach Jamie Dixon’s inability to find and/or retain power forwards and centers. To be fair, they don’t grow on trees, because you’re looking for one the size of one, but it never fails that after a respectable season, with the TCU men trudging their way through a competitive conference and agitating hope among the fan base, the Frogs and their supporters are dashed at the oversized mitts of some lumbering 7-footer dominating the paint in the first round of the tournament. A good coach with a roster equipped with capable big (wo-)men can stymie the run-and-gun style necessary of teams based around talented guard play and shooting forwards.
Prince is the type of player I’ve been hoping the men’s team could nab for years, the baller you ride when outside shooters can’t buy a basket. When nothing is going your way, you need length and grit to bring that basket within reach, which is exactly why these Lady Frogs have the legs to improve upon their Top 10 ranking and compete in the women’s dance far beyond what this program and fans have experienced before. l
The dominating inside presence of Sedona Prince gives TCU women’s basketball a legitimate chance to be a Final Four team.
Courtesy TCU Athletics
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (Mar 21-Apr 19)
Author Anais Nin wrote, “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
You Aries folks now have a mandate to expand your life through courageous acts, thoughts, and feelings. Make the Arctic fox your power symbol. This intrepid creature undertakes epic migrations, journeying over 2,000 miles across sea ice, using starlight and magnetic fields to navigate. Likewise, you are equipped with an inner guidance system that gives you a keen intuitive sense of how to maneuver in unfamiliar territory.
PS: Anais Nin has another tip: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
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GEMINI (May 21-Jun 20)
You now have a robust potential to see things that have always been invisible, secret, or off-limits to you. Some of these wonders could motivate you to reinterpret your life story and reshape your future plans.
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Snakes have been symbols of fertility and healing in many cultures. Because they periodically shed their skin, they also represent regeneration and rebirth. Hoperully, you don’t harbor an instinctual aversion to snakes, Cancerian. The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to call on and benefit from their iconic powers.
LEO (Jul 23-Aug 22)
In the coming months, be extra creative as you enhance your network of connections and support. Encourage your allies to provide you with tips about opportunities and possibilities that you would not otherwise know about. Ask them to serve as links to novel resources that will nurture your longterm dreams.
VIRGO (Aug 23-Sep 22)
Take a vigorous inventory of the effects that your work and play have on the world. Are they aligned with your intentions? Are your ambitions moored in impeccable integrity?
LIBRA (Sep 23-Oct 22)
Now is an excellent time to think and feel deeply about what is truly beautiful to you—and take steps to bring more of it into your life. For you Libras, beauty is an essential ingredient in your life’s purpose.
SCORPIO (Oct 23-Nov 21)
The way that ancient Romans made concrete was more ingenious than modern methods. Their manufacturing materials included “lime clasts,” which gave the concrete self-healing qualities. When cracks arose, they fixed themselves. That’s why Roman aqueducts built 2,000 years ago can still convey water today. Metaphorically speaking, work on building similar structures in the coming weeks. It’s time to create strong foundations that will last for a very long time.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22-Dec 21)
Do you harbor a yearning to learn a new language, new skill, or new trick? The coming weeks will be a favorable phase to get serious about doing it. Have you fantasized about embarking on an adventure that would expand your understanding of how the world works? The time is right.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22-Jan 19)
Bristlecone pine trees grow very slowly, but they are hardy and long-lived. Their wood is so dense and strong that it’s virtually immune to disease, insects, and erosion. They grow in places that are inhospitable for many other trees, and apparent obstacles stimulate their resilience. Be like them in the coming weeks.
AQUARIUS (Jan 20- Feb 18)
What taboos do you observe? Now is a good time to re-evaluate and consider changing your relationship with them.
PISCES (Feb 19-Mar 20)
As winter progresses, each day is longer and each night shorter. Most humans feel an undercurrent of joy that the amount of light in the world is growing. But don’t forget to honor the beauty and powers of darkness in the coming weeks.
EXPANDED HOROSCOPES
For unabridged versions of the horoscopes above by Rob Brezsny, go to FreeWillAstrology.com.
Aries, Geminis, and Virgos can all learn from the adaptability and cleverness of the Arctic fox.
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