By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – It seemed like yesterday that a precocious LSU freshman guard from Savannah, Georgia, named Flau’Jae Johnson was bearhugging the woman who recruited her, in the final seconds of the Tigers’ 2023 NCAA women’s national championship game win over Iowa.
“She almost knocked me to the floor, her just picking me up and celebrating,” LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said.
And in the blink of an eye, almost four years later, Mulkey and Johnson shared another long courtside embrace on Sunday afternoon.
It happened when now-senior Johnson exited the Pete Maravich Assembly Center court for the final time in her college career as No. 2 seed LSU advanced to the Sweet 16 by demolishing No. 7 seed Texas Tech 101-47 in the second round of the Sacramento 2 Regional.
A crowd of 11,095, many of them holding placards with Johnson’s No. 4 jersey number and the Cajun pronunciation “Feaux,” raised the roof when Mulkey called a timeout with 7:34 left to give Johnson her highly emotional curtain call.
“I knew I was going to lose it, but I was holding strong,” said Johnson, who teamed with Mikaylah Williams to score 24 points each and outscore Texas Tech by themselves.
“Then, my teammates came and hugged me. I heard in that (crowd) roar. I gave everything I had and just let everything out. It was the most beautiful thing that I’ve been a part of. Something I’m going to remember forever.”
So will Mulkey, whose 29-5 team advances to Friday’s regional semfinals vs. No. 3 seed Duke (26-8), which lost at home 93-77 to LSU on Dec. 4. She’s coached many great players in her 26-year Naismith Hall of Fame coaching career, but the effervescent Johnson has operated in a different stratosphere.
She somehow combined her career as a burgeoning nationally known rapper (which started as a tribute to her dad, who was also a rapper killed in a 2003 shooting six months before she was born) and a college athlete/student.
Thanks to her musical career and her endorsements, her NIL evaluation of $1.5 million is the highest in women’s basketball. She was honored on March 12 as the national winner of the inaugural Kay Yow Servant Leader of the Year award.
“She stayed here for four years and impacted so many people in this town that we don’t even know about,” Mulkey said of Johnson, who was the first McDonald’s All-American signed by Mulkey.
Johnson’s signing was followed by subsequent McDonald’s All-American signees Williams of Bossier City’s Parkway High in 2023 and Grace Knox in 2025, as well as Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year Jada Richard in 2024, and two-time New Mexico Player of the Year Bella Hines and four-time Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year ZaKiyah Johnson, both in 2025.
Sprinkle in fellow Class of ’25 recruiting transfers MiLaysha Fulwiley (South Carolina), Amiya Joiner (East Carolina) and Kate Koval (Notre Dame), and you get a team that set an NCAA record vs. Texas Tech for most 100-point wins (16) in a season.
It was Richard scoring the Tigers’ final basket – a 3-pointer – against the Red Raiders that etched the 2025-26 squad in the record book.
Texas Tech head coach Krista Gerlich was appropriately impressed after LSU outscored the Red Raiders 32-4 off 19 Tech turnovers, 24-0 in fast break points and 46-12 points in the paint.
“It’s incredible the type of players they have and how quickly they can move the ball up the floor,” said Gerlich, whose squad finished 26-8. “That offense sells tickets, and clearly everybody wants to watch them score the ball, and defense wins championships. It looks to me like they’ve got a little bit of both.”
LSU’s defense was relentless and suffocating. The only reason the Red Raiders trailed by less than 20 at halftime – 43-25 to be exact – was that six of their seven first-half field goals were 3-pointers.
The Tigers cut off the head of that snake in the second half when Texas Tech missed its first 13 3-point attempts and finished 2 of 21 in the last two quarters.
“I feel like this was our best defensive effort of the year as a whole team,” said Johnson after the Tigers held Texas Tech to 25.4 percent (16 for 63) from the field. “We were helping each other. I just thought it was amazing.”
So was LSU’s offense. In between Johnson’s swoops to the hoop, Williams’ sniper-like accuracy from all distances, and a pair of double-doubles from post players Joyner (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Koval (10 points, 10 rebounds), the Tigers hung a hundy on a Red Raiders squad that only allowed more than 70 points four times this season.
LSU’s Sunday beatdown came on the heels of hammering No. 15 seed Jacksonville 116-58 in Friday’s first-round game.
Against the Dolphins, the Tigers became the first team in NCAA Tournament history to score 30-plus points in three separate quarters and tied a tourney record with seven double-digit scorers. It was also the most points LSU has ever scored in an NCAA tourney game.
The two-game cumulative damage unleashed by LSU might be unprecedented.
The Tigers outscored their opponents by an average of 108.5 to 52.5 points, outrebounded them by an average of 44.5 to 24, and outshot them 59 percent from the field (78 of 122) to 32 percent (40 of 125).
LSU also outscored Jacksonville State and Texas Tech 70-17 in points off turnovers, 53-11 in fast break points and 112-34 in points in the paint.
But Mulkey and her team know the prelims are over. Standing in the way of the Tigers’ second trip to the Final Four in Mulkey’s five LSU seasons are Duke and possibly a Sunday regional final vs. No. 1 seed UCLA if the Tigers can beat Duke for a second time this year.
Despite the Blue Devils jumping to a 14-1 lead over the Tigers in the first 3:13 of the December matchup, LSU’s 93 points are the most the Blue Devils have given up this year.
Also, the Tigers beat UCLA 78-69 in the 2024 Albany Regional 2 semifinals but lost to the Bruins 72-65 in last season’s Spokane Regional 1.
“It’s hard to beat people twice,” said Mulkey of Duke, who has advanced to at least the Sweet 16 19 times in 24 NCAA tourney appearances. “They’re better, I’m sure, and I think we’re better.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com
Continue your article here…