The LSU Tigers guard spoke to Yahoo Sports women’s basketball writer Cassandra Negley about her sophomore season and what it’s been like going for back-to-back national titles. Flau’jae joined Yahoo Sports on behalf of Powerade.

Video Transcript

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: I'm Cassandra Negley with Yahoo Sports, joined by LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson. She's with us on behalf of Powerade, which we're going to get to in a minute. But first, the season is wrapping up. So I'm just curious, how are you feeling at this part of the season? Excited? Angsty? Ready to go? Focused?

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Focused. Motivated. It's a grind. This part of the season is a grind, so really just trying to stay focused on what the goal is. The goal is the championship. The goal is to play in March Madness and everything like that. So I mean, it's fun for me just being able to see everything, experience it again, show the freshmen what it's like, so it's so fun.

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: You've obviously been through this before and made a run all the way to the Final Four, to the championship game. Since you have that firsthand experience, how has that impacted you now that you're a sophomore and you know what's coming come tournament time?

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Yeah. I kind of just know what to expect, just take everything as it comes. You know what I'm saying? Try to embrace it every morning, and try to feel every moment more, trying to be in the moment more. So I think if I do my job, that just helps our team become better and better and better. So just doing what I have to do in order to help us be successful is just-- it's just good for me.

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: You had mentioned the freshmen in terms of that and bringing them along with you. What have you spoken to them about going into this stretch that maybe you didn't recognize last year about it?

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Man, it's going to be harder to play because every team is scouting you. They know exactly what you're going to do, and they're playing to cut away your strengths. So just don't get frustrated. You just do as best as you can. Bring the same energy you can, and do something other than score to help the team win.

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: Last year at about this time, you guys lost to Tennessee in the SEC tournament game. And when I spoke to a lot of you throughout the NCAA tournament and at the Final Four, you said that game is what you really looked at as catapulting you to the national championship. Has there been a moment this season where you felt maybe a tide shift already that has helped you guys?

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Absolutely. After that Mississippi State loss and the Auburn loss, games we weren't supposed to lose at all, I think it really just shook us. We can be unbeatable, but we're not. We got to play at our best because everybody want to beat us. We LSU, and so I think that really opened our eyes and showed us how good we can be, but we can't play with little teams. You know what I'm saying?

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: Absolutely. Is that feeling after that game kind of the same feeling you had after Tennessee? Is it similar? Different?

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: It's the same feeling. It's the same feeling. It's like, damn, we were supposed to win this. It's no way because we were up 20 against Tennessee, and we let them come back. We gave them the game, so it was that same exact feeling.

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: You are joining us on behalf of Powerade. Tell us what you're up to with them.

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: We're doing a campaign in March-- at the start of March. Just love this campaign. It's just showing that the work that you put in way before March. It don't start in March. Like, it starts in the summer. It starts in the off-season. It starts first day of practice when you're putting that pain in. The fruit doesn't grow the same day you plant it. So it's taking months to harvest this, and it'll all show, and it'll all be displayed in March Madness.

So I'm super excited about that. This campaign is beautiful because I already drink Powerade. I'm always sipping on it. So just to be able to partner with them and be able to push this new product out is really exciting for me.

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: Awesome. Well, congratulations. And thanks for being with us, Flau'jae.

FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Thank you so much.

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