Less than a month after LSU won the 2022 women’s basketball national championship, it went from a projected top 10 2023-24 preseason ranking to the likely preseason No. 1.
The Lady Tigers’ four-player freshman signing class had already been ranked the nation’s best by several outlets. But when LSU second-year head coach Kim Mulkey landed Hailey Van Lith and Annesaw Morrow, the top two ranked transfer portal players, on April 25 and May 7 respectively, the reality of that duo joining returning starters all-American Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson made LSU an instant favorite (along with UConn) to repeat as national champs
In the final of my three-part conversation with Mulkey, she breaks down the 2022-23 Lady Tigers’ personnel.
RH: Your team started this past season ranked No. 16 with modest goals to advance one more game in the NCAA tourney than you did in your first year which ended with a second-round loss to Ohio State.
After now winning a national title, returning a first-team All-American and adding the two highest rated players in the transfer portal, there’s little doubt you’ll be the preseason No. 1 to start next season. Does anything change in your approach having that target on your team’s back?
KM: It doesn't affect the way I recruit or the way I coach. Any ranking will bring recognition to your school, and you want to be ranked.
Sometimes you're not deserving of a ranking. Sometimes you're deserving and you never get ranked. But anytime your name as an institution can be out there, It's a positive.
I don't know if we're worthy of a number one ranking just because we got top ranked transfers, a good recruiting class and excellent returning players. But we're not going to say `No, don't make us the number one team.’
A No. 1 preseason ranking is not going to win you a national championship. It will put a little bigger target on your back that we haven't had at LSU since I've been here, but that's why I came here. I wanted to improve the program.
RH: In her first season at LSU after transferring from Maryland, Angel Reese was a unanimous first-team All-American selection and voted the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. She set the NCAA single-season record in double-doubles (34) and the SEC single-season record in rebounds (an NCAA-leading 555 rebounds)
Despite all those lofty accomplishments, what areas of her game does she need to improve in the off-season?
KM: She's got to continue to work on her face-up game, shoot the jump shot. She’s a phenomenal rebounder, she just has a knack to go where rebounds are and when she's there she's just so strong. She needs to continue to move her feet on defense, get more steals and don't get buried deep.
She’s never going to be content where she is and it's our job to make her better in the intricacies because the college game is so much different than the pro game. It's just different. She's not a back-to-the-basket post player even though she gets a lot down there. We’ll continue to develop her facing the basket and take things from the high post.
RH: Besides Angel, Flau’jae Johnson is the other returning starter for the upcoming season. She certainly had some good moments this past year as a freshman guard. What are her next steps?
KM: Flau’jae was deserving of (SEC) Freshman of the Year. She's the third freshman in my coaching career that got as many minutes (27.6 per game and the only player besides Reese to start all 36 games) as she did. But it was the timing of her coming to LSU. We didn't have all this depth. We didn't have all these people she had to be behind and learn.
She grew up a lot through the year. For the first time in her career, she was on a team with players as talented as her and better. I don't know that Flau’jae has ever been on a team like that.
She had to learn to pass better. She had to learn when to take it off the dribble better. She had to learn to play defense the entire time she’s out there.
She had big moments. Late in the (regular season) Tennessee game, Angel misses the free throw and Flau’jae gets the rebound and put-back. We won the Arkansas game at home (79-76) when she made those late free throws (four in the final 16 seconds).
RH: There’s been a lot of head coaches delving into the transfer portal, but those coaches haven’t accomplished with it what you've done. In your first two recruiting classes, you signed five players from the transfer portal (Reese, Alexis Morris, LaDazhia Williams, Jasmine Carson, Kateri Poole) that were among your top six players this past season in playing time.
In this 2023 recruiting class after winning the national title, you signed Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith and DePaul forward Annesah Morrow, the No. 1 and No. 2 rated players in the transfer portal.
Did you ever think you’d like the transfer portal as much as you have?
KM: I'm not sure that I would tell you I like it. I would say the transfer portal has been good to my programs. Liking it would be different. You like the transfer portal if it benefits you but it can also hurt you quickly.
When NIL and the transfer portal both started, I think coaches kept quiet about it because a lot of them didn’t want it to happen. But as you saw it unfold, it was here to stay, and it was going to happen. You better embrace it. If you don't embrace it, you're going to lose recruits. I feel like that it's here to stay, so you need to embrace it.
RH: I’m so old I covered some of your games when you played for Hammond High and Louisiana Tech in the late 70s and early 80s. When I watch highlights of Hailey Van Lith, I see a lot of your game in hers. She has the same confidence and fire and the ability to make her teammates better as you did as a player. And she has your high school and college in-game pigtails.
Is she somewhat a replica of you as a player?
KM: The resemblance people say is the French braided hair. That's what it is. She's left handed (Mulkey was a righty). She's a heck of a lot better player than I ever was. I think it’s just the mere fact that she’s a guard that has braided hair and she plays very confidently.
As a college player, I had to be the little general – that’s what they used to call me – on the floor. I was 5 feet, 4½ inches. I had to make everybody happy out there. I had to know all the plays and everything we're supposed to do. I was the coach on the floor.
I played multiple positions in high school, but in college I just played point guard.
Hailey can play multiple positions.
RH: As last season progressed, LaDazhia Williams proved to be a worthy Robin to Angel Reese’s Batman role in your inside game. Since Annesah Morrow had 52 double-doubles in 66 games playing for DePaul, does she step into Williams’ vacancy?
KM: She adds to our mix of inside players. Sa’Myah Smith had a tremendous year this past season as a freshman. We don’t talk about her enough. She’s a special talent. And we signed (6-5 freshman) Aalyah Del Rosario out of Nashville and she brings a dominant inside presence
We’ve got depth and we’ve got different kinds of post players. We’ve got to make sure we run things where they get to shine their strengths.
RH: Your incoming freshman class, led by the No. 2 ranked recruit (Bossier City Parkway guard Mikaylah Williams) and the No. 7 ranked signee (Del Rosario), was deemed the No. 1 class nationally. But by adding Van Lith and Morrow from the transfer portal alongside returning starters Reese and Johnson, that foursome represents a combined 274 college starts.
Is that the type of roster balance you seek?
KM: There's no substitute for experience. And usually if you've got a freshman and you got a junior and senior unless that freshman is just unbelievably more talented than that junior and senior, the junior and senior knows how to push, knows how to shove, she’s been in the battle.
We'll also have a lot of youth that will play minutes and that will help them. At first, it might not look too good or poised or polished. But it will help us down the stretch with a mixture of both young and old.
