“[Hailey van Lith] was on skates all night": Former LSU guard Alexis Morris calls out Tigers star amid poor showing against Caitlin Clark's Iowa
In the aftermath of LSU`s Elite Eight 94-87 defeat at the hands of Iowa, fans and analysts have been trying to determine what went wrong for the Tigers. The obvious thing was that Caitlin Clark shot the lights out, but former LSU player Alexis Morris had something to say, and it involved Hailey Van Lith.
Morris recently went on an IG Live (with an excerpt posted on her page on X) commenting on Van Lith, who was directly matched up with Clark almost all night. She said that for all the former Louisville Cardinal`s efforts on the defensive end, the Iowa superstar basically had her on skates:
"Let me give you my unbiased opinion. We should`ve made a defensive adjustment. Somebody else should`ve guarded Caitlin Clark! Like, I mean roller blades, I mean skates all night, I mean heelys! Do you remember the heelys? The ones you just pick your feet up like this, and you just roll?"
She didn`t mention Hailey Van Lith by name, but it`s extremely clear who she`s referring to.
The 6 ft. Clark exploited her size advantage against the 5 ft. 7 LSU guard and she was hunting the mismatch all night. One could argue that the two women didn`t have much separation in terms of skill, but the Iowa star had her rhythm going on and the size disparity was too much to bear for the struggling Van Lith.
In truth, Hailey Van Lith did know she was having a hard time defending Caitlin Clark. A video of her reverse MJ Shrug reaction to the Iowa star hitting another three in her face has been making the rounds online lately, and one can`t really blame her.
How did LSU plan to defend Caitlin Clark?
When Tigers head coach Kim Mulkey was asked about their strategy to defend the nation`s best scorer, here`s what she had to say:
"Well, there`s not a lot of strategy. We had to guard her, nobody else seems to be able to guard her. We didn`t even guard her last year when we beat `em. She`s just a generational player, and she just makes everybody around her better. That`s what the great ones do."
Mulkey continues:
"Caitlin Clark`s not going to beat you by herself. It`s what she does to help make those other teammates better that lets her score points and them score points to beat you."
With the win, Iowa now remains as the only other top seed still in the NCAA Tournament aside from South Carolina. They face the UConn Huskies next.