Hailey Van Lith experienced<\/a> in her lone season in Fort Worth last year. Van Lith openly shared how she struggled with her mental health, but her time at TCU helped her find her light on and off the court.<\/p>\nFor another high-profile star to experience that same feeling under Campbell speaks to the culture he\u2019s building in his program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very intentional on trying to find the right people,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThere\u2019s a basketball piece to making sure they fit with what we\u2019re trying to do with our scheme. But then there\u2019s the human element that\u2019s a lot harder to figure out and get right. And we work really, really hard to try to find the right young people that are going to fit our culture, our environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo both Olivia and Hailey have truly blossomed. I think both of them got their love of the game of basketball back. But I think it\u2019s our village. … And we allow young people to be themselves, and for Olivia to be the best version of Olivia, and for Marta Suarez to figure out what\u2019s the best version of Marta Suarez and allow her to be herself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some programs have built their identity on hard coaching or amassing the most talent possible, and while Campbell isn\u2019t soft on his players, he\u2019s opted to create a culture of joy that\u2019s led to TCU signing Van Lith and Miles. And those recruiting wins were catalysts for both Elite Eight runs.<\/p>\n
Miles is a brilliant basketball player, comparable to a painter or actor with her showmanship on the court and a mind that operates at a different level than most other athletes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlivia, there\u2019s maybe five players on the planet that can do what she does, men or women,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cHer basketball vision, her IQ, her understanding of the game is magical. It\u2019s a gift that she has. It\u2019s been really fun as a coach to try and figure out how to put her in position and space the court and give her the freedom to go do what she does. That\u2019s just been really special.\u201d<\/p>\n
For some coaches, it would be in their nature to reel in some of the flashy passes and stepback shots, but Campbell empowered Miles to be herself on and off the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being around coaches growing up that have allowed me to be me and be creative,\u201d Miles said of her flair on the court. \u201cLuckily I haven\u2019t ran into a coach that says girls can\u2019t do one-handed layups or girls can\u2019t make one-armed passes. I\u2019ve heard of players that have had to put themselves in a box because they\u2019re not able to be creative.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank goodness I was around people that always inspired me to try new things. … It translates because I practice it so much, and it\u2019s like second nature. [Campbell] allows me to do it most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
With her joy and love for the game back, Miles finally reached new heights in her career, and that joy she plays with could be the key to TCU upsetting South Carolina to reach the Final Four.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 11:17 PM.<\/p>\n
Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. There are few things TCU guard Olivia Miles hasn\u2019t accomplished during her illustrious college career. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":689794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,288828,7371,7372,45328,289101,289081,45330,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-689793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-elite-eight","tag-fort-worth","tag-fortworth","tag-olivia-miles","tag-tcu-vs-south-carolina","tag-tcu-vs-virginia","tag-tcu-womens-basketball","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116311606239800901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}