A Sweet 16 superstar dissed Barack Obama and Jimmy Fallon for doubting her team

• Hailey Van Lith is marching through the 2022 NCAA Tournament with a chip on her shoulder.
• The Louisville Cardinals star is irked that people slept on her squad while making their brackets.

Hailey Van Lith isn't letting anyone off the hook for underestimating her Louisville Cardinals.

Not even Barack Obama or Jimmy Fallon.

The superstar sophomore point guard for Jeff Walz's top-seeded team dissed everyone who didn't show faith in the Cardinals while filling out their 2022 women's March Madness brackets. And that included the former president of the United States and the host of "The Tonight Show."

"We don't need the people picking the brackets," Van Lith declared during a press conference ahead of her team's Sweet 16 game against Tennessee on Saturday. "We don't need Barack Obama's bracket. We don't need Jimmy Fallon. We don't need [any] of that.

"We're still here," she added. "That is what it is. We're going to keep playing Louisville basketball and do us. If you match up with us, you better be ready to play. That's all I'm going to say because we're coming to win."

The first-team All-ACC guard and her squad — which has ranked in the Top 5 since late December 2021 — went on a tear through the first weekend of this year's NCAA Tournament. Louisville notched a 32-point victory against the Albany Great Danes in the opening round before readily taking down the No. 9 Gonzaga Bulldogs two days later.

Van Lith herself finished with 20 and 21 points, respectively, and averaged 50.0% shooting from the floor and from beyond the arc.

"She's obviously really confident shooting the basketball," Walz said of his point guard. "She's scoring from all three phases. She's shooting the three well, the pull-up, she gets to the rim, then she's able to step up and knock free throws down."

But Van Lith is hardly concerned with her individual accolades. When a member of the media asked what drew her — a native of Washington state — to join the Cardinals halfway across the country, she offered a "simple" answer: "I came here because I wanted to win."

"I think everyone else did, too," Van Lith added, referring to her teammates. "That's why we win when we come here, because everybody wants to win."

Louisville will look to continue its winning ways against a young but talented Volunteers team on Saturday. Should the Cardinals advance, the winner of Michigan-South Dakota State awaits them in the Elite Eight.

But no matter what time is in front of them, Van Lith and the rest of the stacked Louisville squad have their eyes locked on the prize. So forgive her for starting to "get mad" that people are sleeping on the Cardinals — or don't. She doesn't care.

"We're kind of like the Bad News Bears; we upset everyone's bracket, we piss people off that we're good," Van Lith said. "Everyone gets mad when we beat teams. You learn to love that about it. It's unfortunate that it has to be that way.

"I mean, we got our fans back home, and that's all we care about," she added. "We are going to ride or die for them, they're going to ride or die for us. That is all we need."

Check out her full answer from the pre-Sweet 16 press conference below:

—Tyler Greever (@Tyler_Greever) March 25, 2022