TCU Women's Basketball: Seeds Planted Two Years Ago Are Now Blooming

The fall of 2022 was a magical, if not surreal, time for TCU. New head coach Sonny Dykes led his football team to an undefeated regular season, a berth in the College Football Playoffs, a Fiesta Bowl victory over Michigan, and a final No. 2 ranking.

That magical ride continued throughout the rest of the 2022-23 academic year. By the time the year ended in June, six TCU teams had reached the national semifinals, or finals, in their respective sports. It was a great time to be a Horned Frog. In June, I even wrote a story about the magical ride of that year.

2022-23 - Many TCU Teams Found Success

How good was it? Here are the teams that made it their national semifinal or final:

Football: TCU became the first team from the Big 12 and the first from Texas to make the National Championship Game in the College Football Playoffs era.
Men's Tennis: TCU won its second straight ITA Indoor National Championship, the Big 12 tournament, and advanced to the national semifinals.
Rifle: The TCU Rifle team finished as National Runner-Up.
Equestrian: TCU Equestrian advanced to the NCEA Semifinals, producing a nation-leading 12 All-Americans.
Beach Volleyball: The TCU Beach Volleyball team had its most successful season to date and finished as the No. 3 team in the nation.
Baseball: Despite a rough April, the TCU Baseball team not only won the Big 12 tournament but also made it to Omaha for the sixth time, losing to Florida in the semifinals.

Other teams had great years too, despite not making it that far:

Women's Tennis: TCU won the first-ever National Invitational Tournament championship.
Men's Basketball: For the second straight year, TCU made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and came within three points of defeating Gonzaga for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen.
Women's Soccer: TCU advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament
Volleyball: Under new head coach Jason Williams, the team made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Golf: The TCU men's team advanced to the NCAA Regionals, while the women's team advanced to the third round of the NCAA Championships.

Then There Was TCU's Women's Basketball

The TCU Women's Basketball team is not on the list above. In the 2022-23 season, the team went 8-23 (.258) and 1-17 (.056) in Big 12 conference games. The only regular season win against a Big 12 foe was a 75-62 win over Kansas State in Fort Worth on February 18.

The team did manage to beat Kansas in the first round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship in Kansas City. In the next round, they fought hard against No. 14 Oklahoma and lost by just one point, 76-77.

The TCU women's program, which had not been very successful for several years, had hit rock bottom. While the rest of campus was celebrating postseason successes, there was no enthusiasm for the program. Success, at any level, was a long way off, and no one could fathom any success any time soon.

Raegan Pebley, TCU's head coach, knew it was time for a change as well. With two years remaining on her contract, she announced in late February of that year that she would step away from the program. Pebley led the Horned Frogs to four postseason appearances in her first five seasons, including WNIT Semifinals appearances in both 2017-18 and 2018-19. The 2019-20 squad was on the way to making a postseason appearance prior to the NCAA Tournament being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seeds of Hope Planted in Spring 2023

As we said earlier, 2022-23 was the best year for TCU Sports. While the women's basketball team did not experience the postseason success so many other TCU teams did, one could argue that they, too, benefitted from that year's greatness.

Hitting rock bottom hurt. But change was in the air. On March 23, 2023, two weeks after the season ended in Kansas City, then-Athletic Director Jeremiah Donati announced the hiring of Mark Campbell as the new head coach for the women's team.

Campbell had been the head coach of the Sacramento State Hornets for the two previous seasons. He took over the program at Sacramento State on April 16, 2021, and his record there was 39-24, which included a 25-8 record in 2022-23.

Prior to joining the Hornets, Campbell spent seven seasons at Oregon, most recently as the team’s associate head coach. In his seven seasons with the Ducks, Campbell helped lead Oregon to three straight Pac-12 regular season titles, two Pac-12 Tournament championships, and five NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the Final Four in 2019.

Campbell arrived on campus in the spring of 2023 with a vision. He didn't have NIL money to offer, but he could offer playing time and an opportunity to rebuild a program from the ground up. His vision, planted as a seed that spring, has blossomed into a Sweet Sixteen appearance this season.

Seeds of Hope Found Elsewhere in Women's College Basketball

Beyond TCU's last-place team of 2022-23, women's college basketball was in the midst of a renaissance, with more and more fans turning to watch the sport.

In the 2023 finals, who could forget the national championship game between Iowa and LSU? Iowa's Caitlin Clark was the emerging star, but LSU's Angel Reese was quick to give Clark that "You Can't See Me" gesture as LSU handily defeated the Hawkeyes 102-85.

But it wasn't just those two. Many members of TCU's 2024-25 squad have postseason experience. All of that experience was on display this past weekend as TCU defeated Fairleigh Dickinson and then Louisville to advance to the Sweet 16.

Seeds for this year's team were planted back in the 2021 postseason and every postseason since then. All of this experience has helped TCU reach places no one expected back in 2023. Notice how this year's team is so interconnected in recent postseasons:

2020-21 Postseason:

Louisville, with Hailey Van Lith on the team, beat Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen. Oregon's team had Sedona Prince on it and Mark Campbell as an assistant coach.
Stanford, with Agnes Emma-Nnopu on the team, then beat Louisville in the Elite Eight.
Stanford won its Final Four game over South Carolina, advancing to the National Championship Game. The Cardinal defeated Arizona, with Madison Conner on the team, to win the Natty.

2021-22 Postseason:

Stanford, with Emma-Nnopu still on the team, lost to UConn in one of the national semifinal games.
Louisville, with Van Lith still on the team, lost to South Carolina in the other national semifinal game.
South Carolina would go on to win the Natty that season.

2022-23 Postseason:

Louisville, with Van Lith, lost to Iowa in the Elite Eight.
It was the first of two straight postseasons in which Van Lith was forced to guard Caitlin Clark, with Iowa winning both years.
Iowa would lose to LSU in the aforementioned national championship game.

2023-24 Postseason:

Van Lith had transferred to the defending national champions, LSU.
Once again, Van Lith's team would face Iowa in the Elite Eight. Once again, Iowa would advance.
Iowa lost to South Carolina in the national championship game.

Hailey Van Lith after another Caitlin Clark 3 pointer.pic.twitter.com/ZadmsNQhUx
— ✶ Ⓜ️𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕤 ▶️ ✶ (@_MarcusD3_) April 2, 2024

2022-23 Was Not a Lost Year for TCU Women's Basketball

Yes, the 2022-23 year was arguably the best for TCU sports. And yes, though the women's basketball team went a dismal 1-17 in conference play, the hiring of Mark Campbell that spring has brought us to this historic time for the program.

Campbell quickly recruited Prince, Conner, and Emma-Nnopu that spring to be a part of his vision. Bringing Van Lith the next year just sealed the deal on what this year's team would become.

No. 2 seed TCU will face No. 3 seed Notre Dame, a rematch of a game the Frogs won in November, on Saturday, March 29, in Birmingham, AL.