Kim Mulkey Has Found Her Championship Point Guard In Jada Richard

By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey is primarily known for developing post players at an elite level, but she also knows what kind of guard play it takes to lead her teams to deep runs in the NCAA Tournament.

Mulkey led four teams to a national championship in her 26 years as a head coach (2005, 2012, 2019, 2023). On all four teams, Mulkey had dominant bigs, but the teams were led by great point guards. Chelsea Whitaker (2004-05), Oddysey Sims (2011-2012), Chloe Jackson (2018-19) and Alexis Morris (2022-23) all did an exceptional job running Mulkey’s offense. And this season, sophomore guard Jada Richard is doing just that.

Richard, who was a top-100 recruit coming out of Lafayette Christian Academy, spent most of her freshman season learning Mulkey’s offense. After an offseason of continuous work and intensive practices, Richard earned a starting spot as the team’s point guard. Now, she’s averaging 8.3 points, 3.3 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals a game for the Tigers midway through the season.

“She’s the type of player right now that we thought she was going to be,” Associate Head Coach Bob Starkey said after the Tigers’ 91-72 win over Oklahoma. “I just had somebody ask me out on the floor did we know that number thirty was going to be this good? We did know number thirty was going to be this good. She was a very, very competitive defensive player in high school and also quick off the bounce that could shoot the basketball. It was just a matter of her transferring it to the collegiate level.”

Richard is coming off her best game at LSU yet as she scored a career-high 21 points against No. 16 Oklahoma (14-4, 2-3 Southeastern Conference). Richard not only was able to score, but locked up the Sooners’ leading scorer, Alliyah Chavez. The true freshman was held to 3-of-14 shooting and scored just 11 points, her second-lowest total of the year. Richard’s teammates are also seeing her impact first-hand.

“I would say she did a great job just controlling the tempo on defense, getting back in transition,” senior guard Flau’jae Johnson said. “We had a couple of lapses in transition, but overall, Jada controlled the pace, she really controlled the whole dynamic on defense, so I would say it was her really dictating what Oklahoma did on those actions.”

Richard has come up big for the Tigers when they need it most. So far this season, she has scored 10 or more points in every game against an AP Top-25 ranked team. But Starkey believes Richard’s leadership on the floor has been the difference maker to improving in her second season.

“She’s everything we thought she was going to be, but she has a voice on the floor now,” Starkey said. “She doesn’t have a problem saying something to Flau’jae or Mikaylah, or any of our players in terms of getting them in the right place or telling them something that they need to do or some area they need to pick up on. So, that voice has been, I think, the biggest change.”

Richard and her team will look to keep it up on Thursday as the No. 6 Tigers (17-2, 3-2 SEC) travel to College Station to face a struggling Texas A&M (8-6, 1-4 SEC) team in Reed Arena (8 p.m., SEC Network).