BATON ROUGE, La. — Widespread perceptions that Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey had built a juggernaut at reigning national champion LSU have been revised somewhat by two losses, a key injury and early season chemistry concerns.
The Tigers have slipped to ninth in The Associated Press women's basketball poll from their preseason No. 1 ranking. But LSU, coming off two straight wins, is still a threat to win it all.
The Angel Reese-led Tigers (18-2, 4-1 SEC) can bolster their title credentials in their next game Thursday, when they host No. 1 South Carolina (17-0, 5-0).
"This is what happens when you’re defending champion," Mulkey said of the intensity with which LSU's opponents have played and the hostility the Tigers have faced on the road. “This is what happens when you have the social media following that a few of our players have. This is what happens when people come out to see you.
“Some of the players maybe weren’t prepared for that, and they need to understand with that LSU uniform on, a lot of those things are going to take place,” Mulkey continued. "You've got to prepare yourself.”
LSU arguably has more talent this season than last, when they closed out the regular season ranked ninth in the AP Top 25 and lost to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament semifinals before peaking in the NCAA Tournament.
Several key players from the national title-winning team – namely guard Alexis Morris and forward-center LaDazhia Williams — have graduated. But Mulkey restocked the roster with high-profile transfers and recruits who continue to evolve and get used to not only playing together, but also performing in the LSU limelight.
The top transfers include guard Hailey Van Lith from Louisville and wing player Aneesah Morrow from DePaul. They've gone from being premier players on their previous teams to part of a star-studded lineup led by Reese – a transcendent figure with a seven-figure social media following and seven-figure NIL endorsement value.
The highly touted incoming freshmen include high-scoring guard Mikaylah Williams and 6-foot-6 center Aalyah Del Rosario.
But there have been setbacks. A few games after a season-opening loss to No. 3 Colorado in Las Vegas, Reese was suspended four games by Mulkey for unspecified, basketball-related conduct.
Kateri Poole, a prominent reserve guard who was one of Reese's oldest friends on the roster – predating their time at LSU – also was suspended by Mulkey and later left the team.
Meanwhile, sophomore forward Sa'Myah Smith, who looked ready to blossom in the frontcourt this season, was lost to a major knee injury during a Thanksgiving weekend tournament in the Cayman Islands.
LSU responded to its season-opening loss with a 16-game winning streak but stumbled at Auburn on Jan. 14, dropping the Tigers from seventh to 10th in the AP Top 25.
Offensively, LSU looks fine. The Tigers average nearly 92 points per game, with six players averaging 11 points or more, led by Reese, who's averaged 19.9 points and 12.1 rebounds in 16 games.
Defense, however, has concerned Mulkey. She wants opponents held below 40% shooting and 68 points. That hasn't happened in a handful of games against power conference foes, although the Tigers have appeared to tighten up those areas in lopsided victories over Alabama and Arkansas this past week.
“After the Auburn game, we said that we were never going to get outplayed again,” Williams said. “Since then, we haven’t been."
Mulkey considered how LSU's performance this season has compared to what she expected.
“That’s hard to say because before the season, I had Kateri Poole, I had Sa’Myah Smith. So, what I thought before the season, I have to be a realist now and think differently," Mulkey said.
“As I told the team, ‘Our goals have not been destroyed just because you lost to Auburn,’” Mulkey continued. "This is just a little obstacle in the road. And it’s one, as I said after the South Carolina game last year, ‘You either learn from this or you don’t.’ And I tend to think we learned last year, and we’ll learn this year.”
After watching his team fall 99-68 at LSU on Sunday, Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors surmised that this year's LSU squad is indeed better than the last.
“You can’t take them out of what they’re trying to do,” Neighbors said. "And they haven’t even played to their potential yet.”
