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Every player who helped the LSU women’s basketball team win its 2023 national title has moved on.
Flau’jae Johnson was the last title-team contributor left in the program, and she plays for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. Coach Kim Mulkey and her staff now have 11 players on the roster, and they’ve each joined the Tigers at some point in the last three years.
The new-look group has talent. Mikaylah Williams and MiLaysia Fulwiley are back for their senior years, and Iowa State point guard Jada Williams arrived through the transfer portal.
What can they help the Tigers achieve this coming season?
“I don’t guess any of us will know until we play, right?” Mulkey said. “What does a piece of paper mean? Everybody’s ranked high, everybody’s gonna do this. You just gotta go play.”
Here are three things we learned in LSU’s first practice of the year, a three-hour session Monday held on the Pete Maravich Assembly Center floor.
Small ball
Mulkey may have to use smaller starting and closing lineups than she did last season, especially at the start.
Kate Koval, a 6-foot-5 center, left the program in August, and Noa Morro, a 6-3 forward from Spain, underwent surgery in early September to address a stress fracture in her shin. Mulkey said the sharpshooting newcomer won’t make her debut until mid-to-late November.
Sophomores ZaKiyah Johnson and Grace Knox are expected to start in the frontcourt when the season begins, potentially alongside a backcourt of Jada Williams, Mikaylah Williams and Fulwiley. Johnson is only 5-11, and Knox is 6-2.
The other three post players have size, but none of them can pair it with much experience. Freshman Lola Lampley is a 6-2 wing who practiced with in the frontcourt on Monday, and Russian signee Anna Minaeva is a 6-5 center who’s just 17 years old. She’s played two years of professional basketball in Russia. Sophomore Meghan Yarnevich is back for another year, but she played mostly mop-up duty as a freshman.
“(Koval’s) going to be missed,” Mulkey said. “However, next man up, next woman up. It was not a departure where there was any angriness — none of that. You want kids to go and find their happiness.”
Depth check
Last season, LSU had its deepest roster of Mulkey’s tenure. The Tigers used a true nine-player rotation in SEC play.
This year could look different. Mulkey acknowledged that possibility Monday when she said Mikaylah Williams has worked herself into better physical shape this year than she has in prior preseasons.
“She has really worked on conditioning,” Mulkey said, “and just understands that we don’t have the depth this year, and you’re gonna have to play a lot of minutes.”
Mulkey has two guards who can factor into the rotation. Tennessee Tech transfer Chloe Larry is a ballhandler who can come off the bench, and Florida transfer Laila Reynolds is a tall, long guard who can defend opposing wings.
The frontcourt depth hinges on Morro’s health and the pace at which Lampley and Minaeva develop. Even after Morro returns, Mulkey may not have more than seven or eight players who will see the floor in tight matchups.
She didn’t seem concerned about it Monday.
“How many do I play anyway, right?” Mulkey said.
Minaeva’s potential
Mulkey’s right. Minaeva has a chance to become a “special” player, as the 17-year-old showed Monday in the first practice of her collegiate career.
It just may take some time.
For every highlight-worthy play Minaeva made Monday, she had two or three miscues. She’d lose possession on a drive down the lane, throw a bad pass into traffic or miss an open look at the rim. At times, it looked like the sets that LSU was rehearsing moved a little too quickly for her.
Minaeva has time to adjust, though. The Tigers won’t open the season until Nov. 2, and they won’t play a power-conference opponent until Nov. 28. She should get lots of run in the first eight games.
“Her body is very mature,” Mulkey said. “She’s fundamentally sound. She has tremendous footwork. She is a young lady that understands English very well. She is a big 6-5.
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