BATON ROUGE — LSU women’s basketball wrapped up its exhibition slate Wednesday night inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The No. 7 Tigers took down LSU-Alexandria 117-37, following up its 114-53 win over Xavier-New Orleans last Thursday inside the PMAC.
Kim Mulkey and LSU open the 2024-25 season versus Eastern Kentucky at home Monday (7 p.m., SEC Network+).
Through two exhibitions, let’s dissect what we’ve seen from the Tigers this preseason.
Flau’jae Johnson flashes game takeover ability for LSU women’s basketball during exhibitions
Junior star Flau’jae Johnson is going to need to be the leader for this LSU team. She’ll have Aneesah Morrow in the paint to balance things and push the envelope with her, but Johnson, because of her ability on both ends of the floor, will be first option for the Tigers in 2024-25.
Johnson can score in bunches and the way her defense fuels her offensive game injects energy not only into herself but her teammates.
She dropped 30 points versus Xavier and finished the LSU-A exhibition with 29. Johnson led the team in scoring in both tune-ups.
Last-Tear Poa still absent from LSU women’s basketball; timeline for her return uncertain
Tigers senior point guard Last-Tear Poa has not been with with the team during the exhibition portion of the preseason. LSU coach Kim Mulkey told reporters Poa is still part of the team but it’s unclear when she’ll return.
News came out before Wednesday’s game that Poa has filed a lawsuit against the United States Immigration Services regarding the denial of her F-1A student visa application.
Mulkey was asked about the lawsuit following the team’s exhibition and said it was “news to her.”
Sa’Myah Smith looks healthy, ready for LSU women’s basketball season
When Mulkey didn’t play her in the team’s first exhibition against Xavier-New Orleans last week, some questioned if Sa’Myah Smith was fully healthy.
The junior forward started Wednesday night against LSU-Alexandria and wasted no time dispelling any doubts about her health. LSU got the ball inside to her on the first trip down the floor. She went to work with her back to the basket and sank a floater in the lane. Smith scored LSU’s first 4 points.
She finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds in her first action since last November.
“It felt good (to have Smith back out there), but I wonder sometimes when you have two knee surgeries, one on each knee, some of the things she missed or didn’t look good doing was because she’s still concentrating on that,” Mulkey said. “Has she gotten over that hump yet and not thinking about it? But she can do some things in rebounding, blocked shots. I think her hands will get better.”
LSU women’s basketball has work to do with its fastbreak
When LSU has wanted to push the ball up the floor, it’s been a little disjointed. Against inferior competition like Xavier and LSU-A, the Tigers should be able to get out and run and be effective but the fastbreak was mostly inconsistent for them.
Guards would push the ball too deep into the frontcourt. There were times that the ball carrier was late on their pass to an teammate. All three of LSU’s turnovers against LSU-Alexandria came on fastbreak opportunities.
This is the first court time in games for this group and there’s plenty of time to get in sync.
“We’re going to push it,” Mulkey said. “I think we have a team that has speed and quickness and depth when they all get healthy that is going to push it. Flau’jae and Mikaylah, they’re wanting to run. I think we’re athletic and can do it, we have posts that can do it.”
Kim Mulkey’s LSU team needs to get healthy
Sophomore sensation Mikaylah Williams hasn’t played in the exhibitions for LSU. Sophomore transfer Mjracle Sheppard played 26 minutes in the first preseason game and was effective putting up 12 points, six rebounds and three assists but she sat out against LSU-Alexandria with a lower leg injury she suffered during practice.
Aalyah Del Rosario had two offseason surgeries and is still getting back up to playing shape. Senior guard Shayeann Day-Wilson did not play against LSU-A.
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 Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
