BATON ROUGE — The Southeastern Conference’s annual women’s basketball preseason media poll was released Monday ahead of the official tip off of the 2024-25 season with Media Days being held Wednesday in Birmingham, Alabama.
Thanks to conference realignment, the SEC grew by two new members over the summer, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the party. And as far as women’s basketball is concerned, an already deep conference got much more interesting and challenging.
LSU women’s basketball and Kim Mulkey were picked to finish third in the SEC this season, as voted by the select national and local media in SEC markets. To no one’s surprise, reigning NCAA champions South Carolina and Dawn Staley were voted to win the league for what would be a fourth straight season.
Newcomer Texas is predicted to finish second in the SEC this season, followed by LSU and other newcomer Oklahoma to round out the top four preseason teams.
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Did the media get LSU’s finishing place right? Here’s what I think.
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For disclosure purposes, I do not vote in the SEC preseason poll. But if I had a vote, my ballot would’ve looked like this:
- South Carolina
- LSU
- Texas
- Oklahoma
- Ole Miss
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- Auburn
- Tennessee
- Vanderbilt
- Mississippi State
- Florida
- Texas A&M
- Missouri
- Arkansas
- Georgia
As it stands today, I would’ve had the Tigers coming in behind the Gamecocks and ahead of the Longhorns due to point guard Rori Harmon’s health status. She suffered a season-ending knee injury last season and has not been fully cleared, although I’m hearing the staff there is confident she’ll be ready to go by season’s arrival.
Madison Booker, who immensely stepped up in Harmon’s absence to help guide the Longhorns into the NCAA Tournament, is definitely one of the top players in the league coming in.
I know LSU lost Angel Reese, which is a huge loss, but to me with Flau’jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow and Mikaylah Williams returning, there’s more than enough to carry Mulkey’s team. Plenty of experience in big games. And most of the media feel confident in LSU’s ability this season as both Johnson and Morrow were voted co-Preseason Players of the Year with Texas’ Booker.
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This would’ve been much harder to vote on than the league’s predicted order of finish to me. Johnson ended last season on one of the better NCAA Tournament runs we’ve seen from a sophomore and all signs point to her being the face of LSU’s team.
Morrow should record a double-double every game, and I firmly believe Reese’s program record of double-double in a single season is in trouble. The 6-1 forward’s impact on this season’s Tigers will be vital and it’ll be known each night out.
Booker had to be Texas’ best player last season because of Harmon’s injury. While I think she is the Horns’ top players with Harmon back, how deep Texas is this season, it’s likely there’ll be nights were Harmon goes off then Booker goes off the next game. The pressure on both of them aren’t as high as what it was for Booker a season ago.
For those reasons, my vote would’ve gone to Johnson.
Preseason All-SEC Team
Here is the full preseason All-SEC Team, voted on by the media:
First Team
Sarah Ashlee Barker, Alabama
Georgia Amoore, Kentucky
Aneesah Morrow, LSU
Flau’jae Johnson, LSU
Raegan Beers, Oklahoma
Te-Hina Paopao, South Carolina
Madison Booker, Texas
Second Team
Mikaylah Williams, LSU
Madison Scott, Ole Mis
Skylar Vann, Oklahoma
Raven Johnson, South Carolina
MiLaysia Fulwiley, South Carolina
Rori Harmon, Texas
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
