David Hookstead
Videos by OutKick
Louisville basketball star Hailey Van Lith didn’t seem too happy after smashing Texas in the women’s NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinals hammered the Longhorns 73-51 Monday, but the drama wasn’t while the game was happening. Van Lith, who averages more than 19 points a game, exchanged words with Sonya Morris in contentious fashion, but that’s not where it ended.
The star guard went through the rest of the handshake line in what could best be described as childish behavior. She limp-wristed high fived the rest of the Texas roster before walking away and seemingly explaining the situation to a staffer.
Hailey Van Lith downplays the incident.
Following the action, Van Lith spoke with the press and made it clear she had zero intention in digging into what occurred. She acknowledged sports “get chippy” but the focus should be the ticket Louisville punched to the Sweet 16.
“I have all the respect in the world for Texas. No hard feelings. Sports can get chippy, you play in the heat. At the end of the day, I’m gonna let it go, you know. No hard feelings, I assume that they’ll do the same. I’m just proud of our win. I don’t want to focus on what happened at the end.
It was a very weird situation.
Whatever the cause was, this whole thing was weird for everyone involved. It’s impossible to tell what was said and Hailey Van Lith doesn’t seem interested in breaking it down.
I think it’s safe to say fans definitely want to know what happened because everything about this situation is odd. Clearly, Sonya Morris had something she wanted to say, and Hailey Van Lith wasn’t impressed.
However, it should have died there. HVL going through the rest of the line behaving like a child and not taking it seriously also wasn’t necessary. Texas is going home and Louisville is advancing to the Sweet 16.
Why is Hailey Van Lith sweating anything? Just kick back and party. No need to engage in childish antics.
Also, HVL has a hell of an Instagram followers. She’s currently sitting with more than 675,000. If basketball doesn’t work (seems like it will), she already has the inside track on being an influencer carved out and ready to roll.
“Just kick back and party. No need to engage in childish antics.”
“Kick back and party” while a snake repeatedly hisses jealous trash talk in your face? What competitor lets that happen?
Seems rather the Texas player brought in the childish antics by picking on the “honorable mention” status. The Louisville player had a duty to mirror those antics, to expose the Longhorn’s action for what it was. In the photo/video of this exchange, the players’ eyes don’t lie (as to who looks “possessed”).
The Louisville player functions more honestly as the Toto pulling the curtain, who exposes also the hypocrisy of these post-game handshakes. The mocking gestures being sufficient, the Louisville player then took the high road with the press, to starve that beast.
As is often the case, the better “sportsmanship” here belongs to the victorious athlete.
We start to see a trend in the basketball handshake lines, even in the same week:
https://www.outkick.com/bgsu-womens-basketball-player-gets-sucker-punched-by-angry-memphis-player-police-investigating-strike/
First it’s the Texas player instigating, and now it’s the Memphis player throwing a sucker punch. We now see why the Louisville player did not just “kick back and party” when aggressed.