BOZICH | Is Hailey Van Lith to LSU from Kevin Durant playbook?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This one, the news that former University of Louisville women's basketball star Hailey Van Lith will finish her college career at Louisiana State, is different.

It's not about a player looking for more playing time or cranking up her scoring average.

It's not a mid-major player eager to step up into the brightest lights or a high-major player stepping down for less demanding competition.

It's not about a player moving away from an abusive coach or leaving a program stuck in a dumpster.

So what is it about?

That, of course, is the $500,000 question that remains without an answer — at least until one is forthcoming from Van Lith, who averaged 15.4 points, 13.2 field goal attempts and an Elite Eight appearance every March during her three seasons playing for the Cardinals.

Until that blank is filled in by Van Lith, we can only fill it in for her. I'm going with these two ideas:

1. She's chasing a championship by teaming up with coach Kim Mulkey and all-American Angel Reese when a wildly talented LSU squad tries to defend the national title the Tigers won last month in Dallas.

Admirable? Not to my old school sensibilities. Understandable? Absolutely, if you've tracked the sports culture for the last decade.

Louisville was already in line to lose six seniors from its 26-12 team and coach Jeff Walz did not sign any high school prospects. The Cardinals could wobble a bit more than usual next season.

(I've also heard the narrative that Van Lith wanted a larger role in the offense but, considering she attempted 623 shots, the sixth-highest total in the nation, I've filed that as a stretch.)

2. The NIL opportunities in Baton Rouge are considerably more lucrative than the opportunities currently available for women's basketball players in Louisville.

On Thursday afternoon, not long after Van Lith made her decision Instagram-official, one knowledgable source said the word was Van Lith could generate an extra $500,000 in addition to the money she has been earning as a social media influencer.

(This always wasn't about getting closer to home or the West Coast or a prestigious degree from a place like Stanford.)

Good for her.

Get all you can. Every dollar. Go, go, go for it. Get paid.

For too many years, women's basketball players have competed in the rear-view mirror of the men's game. It was only three seasons ago when the NCAA dumped a handful of free weights and an exercise bike into a ball room in San Antonio, Texas, during the NCAA Tournament and asked the women to consider it a luxurious exercise room.

Van Lith will take a pay cut when she completes her college eligibility and moves into the WNBA. The market has not shifted in the professional game to the same degree that it has in women's college hoops.

Like it or loathe it, Van Lith is making a move that she is entitled to make.

But that does not ease the sting at U of L, where support and investment in women's college basketball has been ahead of the curve for more than a decade. She's not leaving a program that plays in front of 2,500 people for fans who only care about two or three games a year.

That does not mean that Louisville fans should not feel jilted. There was a time when Van Lith was the next Angel McCoughtry, the next Shoni Schimmel, the next Asia Durr, the next great player trying to lead the women's program to the one thing the program has not achieved: a national championship.

I consider Van Lith to LSU the college basketball equivalent of Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors. The first major ring-chasing move fueled by the transfer portal and NIL dollars.

Durant couldn't win a championship in Oklahoma City so he slid into a comfortable spot with the Warriors and won a couple.

He then got weary of sharing a spotlight with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the Bay Area and formed a super team with Kyrie Irving and James Harden in Brooklyn.

He failed miserably there. Failure was not an option, so he worked with management in Brooklyn to dial up a trade to Phoenix, where Durant is trying to win another ring this spring with Devin Booker and Chris Paul.

Good for Durant.

And good for Van Lith.

They haven't done anything against the rules. All they've done is leave behind a fan base with questions they would like to have answered.

Perspective demands that Louisville has benefitted greatly from the transfer portal. Without adding Emily Engstler from Syracuse, the Cardinals likely would not have made their run to the 2022 Final Four. Jeff Walz has welcomed productive players from Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, California and other spots.

While losing his leading scorer, Walz has quickly rebuilt his 2023-24 team with five players from the portal.

Louisville women's basketball will go on. As long as Walz does not put his name in the transfer portal, the Cardinals will remain a force on the national scene, playing a challenging schedule, attracting large crowds to the KFC Yum! Center and advancing in the NCAA Tournament. Book that.

Walz and the administration will likely have to sharpen the Cardinals' NIL game, but they're capable of doing that.

That's college basketball in 2023. Van Lith leaving Louisville for LSU is the latest reminder of that.

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