LSU WBB set to potentially face two high-major teams in Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas – LSU will face Washington at 12:30 p.m. CT at the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship on Monday of Thanksgiving week and will play either NC State or Southern on Wednesday.

The winner of LSU and Washington will face the winner of NC State and Southern on Wednesday. The consolation game will tipoff at 10 a.m. followed by the championship game 12:30.

The Huskies had a strong start to their season last year, making their first appearance in the AP Poll since 2017, beginning 11-0. Throughout the remainder of the year, UW won five games and finished with a 16-15 record (6-12 PAC12). The Huskies return three All-Conference selections going into their debut season in the Big 10.

NC State is coming off a Final Four appearance last season, finishing the season 31-7 (13-5 ACC). The Wolfpack figure to have another strong team this year, returning multiple pieces from last year’s squad. Southern was 15-15 last year (13-5 SWAC) and the Jaguars were picked to finish No. 2 in the league at SWAC Media Day last week.

The Tigers held their first official practice of the season on Monday as they prepare for the upcoming season. LSU is coming off a season in which it went 31-6 and reached the Elite Eight. The Tigers return three starters from last year’s team. Flau’Jae Johnson was named to the Second Team All-SEC last seasons, Mikaylah Williams was named last season’s SEC Freshman of the Year and Aneesah Morrow was a All-SEC First Team selection with multiple All-America honorable mentions. Sa’Myah Smith, a 2023 SEC All-Freshman, briefly started at the beginning of last year before suffering a torn ACL less than a month into the season. She has been a full participant in LSU’s pre-season workouts. LSU also returns 2024 SEC All-Freshman Aalyah Del Rosario, Last-Tear Poa, Amani Bartlett and Izzy Besselman.

The Tigers hit the transfer portal to add forward Jersey Wolfenbarger and guards Shayeann Day-Wilson, Kailyn Gilbert and Mjracle Sheppard. LSU’s lone freshman will be Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year Jada Richard from Lafayette Christian Academy.

ABOUT BAHA MAR HOOPS:

The Baha Mar resort welcomes 18 men’s and women’s teams this November as part of Baha Mar Hoops, an 11-day, 21-game showcase considered the largest regular-season event in the sport of college basketball.

*LSU press release

Kim Mulkey previews the season

On the transfer additions…

“Well, I’m probably gonna forget all of them if I do them individually. What you’re gonna notice is good guards, quickness, kids that can get up and down the floor. I recruited Jersey [Wolfenbarger] out of high school when I was at Baylor and she played in a great program for Ricky Smith and she went to Arkansas and she didn’t finish the year and I contacted her. She came on a visit and she’s here. We’re excited about all the transfers. I think it’s a good mix of transfers, older players with experience, then you add it to the ones that have the experience, and then you look at Jada [Richard], our local young lady. She’s really the only freshman that we have. We’ve got a good little mixture of experience and new players and one young one.”

The makeup of the roster this year…

“I hope it’s athletic. I hope it’s speed and quickness. I think we have more depth of the guard spots. I hope when we get everybody healthy, the post will be just as good as you expect them to be. You know, when Sa’Myah went down, she was almost average in double double. You hope that she can give you that and more. You saw the value of Aaliyah, particularly in that UCLA game when we had to go against Betts. You know what Marrow gives you. You got a senior in Amani and then you add Jersey in there and you can move Jersey and you can move Marrow outside if you need to. So I’m gonna be curious in a month to tell you more based upon what I see every day.”

On Jada Richard surprising people…

“Wouldn’t surprise me. I saw that young lady score almost 40 against Mikayla’s team in high school. She comes from a great high school program. She understands the point guard position as well as anybody I’ve coached. She’s not afraid to be a leader, so it won’t surprise me. I think what you’re referring to is that she didn’t play on the EYBL circuit and I just don’t get caught up in that. I’m more of just watching young people play and you don’t care if they spend all that money playing on all these national teams. If they can play, they can play and nothing I have seen uh from her surprises me. It was everything I expected.”

What keeps you going?

“I think one, I just have a lot of energy, and I think that if you have that energy, if you’re putting a product on the floor that’s competitive and your health is good, what else am I gonna do in life? I can only hang around my grandchildren so long they still have to go to school. And so it’s fun for me to be challenged. It’s fun for me to get up every day and still feel like I’m contributing something to this game. The hard part is what you said about things changing in collegiate athletics. I’m probably one of the old dinosaurs that’s been able to adapt. and I think some in my age group have gotten out because it’s like, no, I’m not putting up with that anymore. I’ve been able to adapt without changing my philosophies on the floor with discipline, with defense, with rebounding and those things. It’s still college sports. All the other outside stuff got, honestly, I don’t deal with it. I give it to an assistant or an administrator and they allow me just to be a coach.”

Approach to the transfer portal…

“We were looking at players at all positions that can play. Players that want to be here. Players that value defense. Players that understand we’re gonna push you hard. We just didn’t limit ourselves to numbers. We signed quite a few, but you have to remember the program can’t exist or sustain success if all you get every year for transfers. You gotta keep getting those freshmen. The hard part is, you just don’t know every year when you step on the floor if you’re gonna have the same team that you had that finished the year. And that’s what runs a lot of coaches out of the business. It’s like you could get a freshman class and say they’re gonna be good when they’re juniors and they’ve got all this experience. It just doesn’t work like that anymore. So whatever roster you have out there, you gotta go to work right out of the gates. 

On Flau’Jae’s growth…

I will tell you of her all around game. And I think,  when you’re a freshman, you’re scared to put freshmen on the better player on the other team, because they’re freshman. There were moments last year on the perimeter where we could putageé on the better players, but then you had to realize she still a sophomore, and I think now on the defensive end of the floor, I wanna be able to look at her and go, you go guard anybody in our league. and those kinds of responsibilities that I would like to see her say, let me do it, Coach. Can absolutely she can. And she’s done it sparingly in the two years that she’s been here offensively? You saw what she can do.  she’s a a long, lengthy guard that can get your rebounds as well. 

“I don’t think there was ever any pressure even when Angel was here. She had a different personality and I told you many times I coached some big personalities and somebody in this bunch will have the big personality. It might not be in comparison to Angel, but the personalities just kind of rise to the top when they get comfortable and it comes with confidence and it comes with being older, but we’re gonna always play with emotion, we’re gonna always play excited and those personalities will surface.”