By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
Coach Kim Mulkey’s 2025-26 LSU women’s basketball team has undergone a major wardrobe change.
Out of the 13 on the roster, eight are new with five freshmen and three transfers. The only returning starters are All-Southeastern Conference first team senior guard Flau’Jae Johnson and All-SEC first team junior guard Mikaylah Williams.
Gone is All-American forward Aneesah Morrow, who was the seventh pick of the WNBA first round last spring by Connecticut, as well as other post players in Jersey Wolfenbarger, Sa’Myah Smith and Aalyah Del Rosario, who all transferred and left Mulkey with no inside size.
But she is embracing the challenge of dressing a new team.
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“I don’t view that any other way than go to work,” Mulkey said at a press conference Tuesday as practice opened. “Let’s go to work. This is what you get paid to do, and let’s see how good we can become.”
Mulkey is the second-highest paid women’s college basketball coach in the country at $3.35 million this season, following South Carolina’s Dawn Staley at $4 million a year.
She has added five freshmen, including a quartet of four-star prospects in 6-foot-2 forward Grace Knox and guards Divine Bourrage, Bella Hines and Zakiyah Johnson. The fifth freshman is 6-0 forward Meghan Yarnevich.
The portal additions are blockbuster transfer SEC Sixth Woman of the Year MiLaysia Fulwiley, a 5-10 guard from national runner-up South Carolina, 6-5 forward Kate Koval of Notre Dame and 6-2 forward Amiya Joyner of East Carolina.
“You know the talent is there,” Mulkey said. “Those kids came in here with quite a reputation, but this is a different level. And let’s see how good we can become.”
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She likes the attitudes of the newcomers, which includes less drama and more basketball.
“The one thing I can tell you is I like their disposition,” Mulkey said. “They’re here to play basketball and to get an education. And I like the way that they just almost all have like a Flau’Jae joy about them. They’re all excited. They’re all happy. They’re all just really focused on basketball, and I enjoy that.”
The Tigers added the No.1 transfer in the nation in Fulwiley, who shocked the college basketball world when she left South Carolina after two seasons in which she averaged 11.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.6 steals a game.
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“She’s beaten me too many times for me not to have taken her into this program,” Mulkey said. “I mean she’s just a big-shot, big-steal, spectacular-moves player. I’m going to challenge her to learn the point guard position, but I’m not going to take away her ability to play the off guard either. I mean ballers want to play with ballers, and she’s going to be fun to watch.”
Mulkey likes her inside players as well.
“We’re pretty big. If you look at Kate (Koval) and you look at Amiya (Joyner), those girls give us some size down there. So, we’ve got a mixture of size. We’ve got a mixture of athleticism. It’ll be fun to watch them develop,” she said.
Koval averaged 5.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 assists as a freshman last year at Notre Dame and made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference freshmen first team.
“I like how she involves everybody, and she’s very confident,” Mulkey said.
Joyner averaged 12.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.9 assist and 1.4 blocks in her three seasons at East Carolina.
“I really think we got a steal in the portal with her,” Mulkey said. “I’m really impressed with things that she can do physically.”
The names may have changed, but rebounding and defense will remain the name of the game for Mulkey.
“All my teams through the years have always been good rebounding teams, and we’re going to guard you,” she said. “We’ve already had some workouts where we didn’t pick up a basketball. We just worked on defense, so they’ll be a team that those two things will be important.”
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