"A chip on their shoulder": TCU women's basketball is ready for success

When Mark Campbell took over the TCU women’s basketball team last season, he inherited a roster that went 1-17 in the Big 12 the year prior. He led the Horned Frogs to a 14-0 start in his first year at the helm before the injury bug hit. 

It hit so hard that Campbell was down to just six players, and he was so desperate for bodies that the program was forced to hold tryouts for walk-ons midway through the season. 

Leading scorers Sedona Prince (19.7 ppg) and Madison Conner (19.2 ppg), and starting point guard Jaden Owens (7.9 ppg. 6.8 apg) were all sidelined for an extended period due to injury. 

Though they managed a major turnaround and finished 21-12, it wasn’t the season anyone had hoped for nor expected after a stellar start. 

Campbell had taken risks in the offseason, bringing in six transfers – each with something to prove. For them, this adversity wasn’t a deterrent but a motivator to improve.

“You look at that first group, and it was a group of kids that had a chip on their shoulder that wanted an opportunity,” Campbell told On3. “They wanted to go prove something.”

Few coaches have embraced the transfer portal like Campbell and succeeded at developing chemistry with so much turnover. He did it in his first year with Prince, a former No. 1 recruit who came in from Oregon, Conner from Arizona and Stanford’s Agnes Emma-Nnopu. 

This offseason, he sought players with that same chip on their shoulder. 

Campbell made one of the splashiest portal additions of the offseason when he added LSU transfer Hailey van Lith. The Horned Frogs also added Oregon State’s Donovyn Hunter and USC’s Taylor Bigby, along with three other players from the portal. 

“We recruited all together,” Prince told On3. “We would sit in and talk to everyone, like Taylor Bigby. We’d say, ‘This is the place to be. This is the place to heal. Come, and let’s do something special.’”

The defining trait of nearly every player on TCU’s roster is that same chip on their shoulder. They’ve all faced adversity, but at TCU, they’ve thrived.

“When you hear 1-17, that’s rock bottom,” Campbell said. “You’ve got to take some chances. As you put this puzzle together, you never know exactly how it’s going to go. You don’t know what the mindset of the portal kids are going to be until you get in the trenches with them.” 

Nobody knew if Prince would succeed at TCU after facing so many injuries. Similarly, questions lingered about van Lith after struggling last season at LSU.

Both have silenced the doubters in the Horned Frogs 9-0 start. Prince is averaging 19.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 4.3 blocks per game, while van Lith is averaging 19.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.8 steals.

“It’s the theme,” Campbell said. “You keep getting kids, for different reasons, that are a little wounded, or had some adversity. They end up here and they end up blossoming and flourishing.” 

Despite starting the season unranked in the AP Poll, the Horned Frogs are firmly on the national stage now, ranked No. 9 in and No. 5 in On3’s Top 25. They have yet another undefeated start, this time with wins over then-No. 9 NC State at home and then-No. 3 Notre Dame on a neutral site. 

“It’s a testament to this group of kids,” Campbell said. “They’re playing the game right, and they’re being unselfish. That starts with Hailey. Hailey and Sedona are pass-first kids, and so they set the tone, and everybody else has followed.”

But their biggest test will come this Sunday as they face the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks. 

“The scheduling philosophy is, we’re going to get the talent, so let’s make sure we’ve got a schedule that’s going to give us the opportunity to prove to the country that we’re elite,” Campbell said. 

While their first two ranked wins were major stepping stones, defeating the Gamecocks is a feat only one other program has accomplished since the 2023 Final Four.

“You have to have the right mindset going into that game, and then you have to do a great job of keeping them out of transition and keeping them off the glass, which is much easier said than done,” Campbell said. “They are incredible… They just have so much talent in so many ways. They’re deep. You’ve got to play a really, really good basketball game on both sides of the ball to have a chance to beat those guys.” 

All of TCU’s major contributors are healthy now and hungrier than ever. Each player on this roster, from top to bottom, is ready to prove themselves.