LSU Begins Women’s Basketball Practice With Fans In The PMAC

BATON ROUGE – The LSU Women’s Basketball team officially began practice Monday afternoon on the main floor of the PMAC with nearly 2,500 fans in attendance.

It marked the first of 30 allocated practices over the next 42 days before the Tigers begin the season on November 6 against Colorado in Las Vegas. LSU’s home opener will be on November 9 against Queens (NC), the same night LSU’s national championship banner is unveiled.

The PMAC was abuzz Monday after as fans flocked through the doors to see the defending national champions take the floor. Coach Kim Mulkey is entering her third season as LSU’s head coach and is going into this season with her most talented roster in Baton Rouge yet.

“Talent is there,” Coach Mulkey said at her pre-practice press conference with over 30 media members. “We can score the ball at a lot of positions, really at all positions. And we have lots of depth. I can’t hide that. When you come and watch us, it’s a very talented team offensively. We have a good mixture of returning players and newcomers.”

LSU returns All-American Angel Reese, SEC Freshman of the Year Flau’Jae Johnson, SEC All-Freshmen team member Sa’Myah Smith and other key contributors like Last-Tear Poa and Kateri Poole back as well. The Tigers do lose starters from last year’s squad like Jasmine Carson, Alexis Morris and LaDazhia Williams – nearly 41-percent of last season’s scoring.

LSU has a group of talented newcomers that will look to fill key roles on this year’s team. The Tigers brough in the top two players from the transfer portal in All-Americans Hailey Van Lith from Louisville and Aneesah Morrow from DePaul. Last year at Lousiville, Van Lith was one of two Power-Five players (Caitlin Clark, Iowa) to average at least 19 points, four rebounds and three assists per game. Morrow averaged 25.7 points (No. 4 in NCAA) and 12.2 rebounds (No. 7 in NCAA) last year and was the only player in the country other than Reese to rank inside the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding. The Tigers also boast the nation’s top-rated class of freshmen featuring Louisiana product Mikaylah Williams, Aalyah Del Rosario, Angelica Velez and Janae Kent.

(Release via LSU Athletics)