By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – The expectation level for each of LSU women’s head basketball coach Kim Mulkey’s four seasons has been drastically different.
Year 1 in 2021-22: Unranked, hope to change the program’s culture that was 9-13 in 2020-21, work to have a winning record and have a chance at postseason play.
Year 2 in 2022-23: Preseason rank No. 16 coming off a stunning 26-6 turnaround, three new transfers and a 5-star freshman in the starting lineup, seemingly set to make a deep postseason run.
Year 3 in 2023-24: Preseason No. 1 as defending national champion with a 34-2 record, top stars back, great recruiting class equals a serious contender for a national championship repeat.
And this year’s expectation as LSU opens the regular season tonight vs. Eastern Kentucky at 7 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center?
Preseason rank No. 7, blending four returning starters from last season’s 31-6 Elite Eight squad with four transfers, a freshman and a sophomore redshirt center coming off an injury, hoping to have some things figured out in the 15 non-conference games before the start of play in the expanded SEC at Arkansas on Jan. 2.
In LSU’s preseason beatdown of Xavier (La.) by 61 points and LSU-Alexandria by 80, Mulkey started two different lineups with returning starters Flau’jae Johnson and Aneesah Morrow anchoring the lineup with newcomer junior transfer guard Kailyn Gilbert.
“Let’s be fair, real and honest,” Mulkey said. “It’s hard to gauge things in these two games.”
That’s because at least six players on the Tigers’ 13-woman roster have already missed time for various reasons.
Sophomore guard Mikaylah Williams of Bossier City and Parkway High, last season’s SEC Freshman of the Year, was held out of preseason play because of an ankle sprain she sustained a couple of days before the first preseason game on Oct. 24.
“We probably could have played her, but there was no need to,” Mulkey said.
Williams will likely play tonight as will senior transfer guard Shayeann Day-Wilson of Miami, who started in the first preseason game and sat out the second with a hip pointer.
Returning senior guard Last Tear-Poa, who emerged as a key backcourt figure late season when the Tigers made a run to the Elite Eight before losing to Iowa in the regional finals, is out indefinitely.
She filed a lawsuit against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services over the denial of her P-1A Athlete application “citing that her future events are not internationally recognized.”
Poa, from Melbourne, Australia, is playing at LSU on an F-1 student visa. She has more than 200,000 social media followers. But since the implementation of Name, Image and Likeness on the collegiate athletics scene a handful of years ago, it’s been difficult for international student-athletes to produce NIL deals. International students on F-1 student visas are prohibited from employment while they are in the country, per U.S. Immigration guidelines.
Also, junior guard Izzy Besselman has been sidelined the entire preseason with a heart condition that is unresolved after visiting four different cardiologists. Sophomore transfer guard Mjacle Sheppard who had 12 points and 6 steals in the preseason win over Xavier, is out two weeks with a stress reaction.
“We’ve got to get everybody from all these little nicks they have and get them back on the floor,” Mulkey said. “And when we do, I think we have enough depth and athleticism to clean up what you know we’re just kind of struggling to do right now.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com