It wasn’t long ago that the was 0-2 in Southeastern Conference play, staring down a pair of games that were arguably even tougher than the first two it lost.
Then the turned things around. And they did it rather quickly.
Now LSU has the longest active winning streak in the SEC, and it will begin the second half of its conference schedule squarely in the mix to host NCAA Tournament contests for the fifth season in a row. A No. 1 seed is still on the table for coach Tigers, especially because they’ll soon have big opportunities against No. 4 Texas on Thursday and their annual showdown with No. 3 South Carolina on Feb. 14.
Those games headline another unforgiving stretch of matchups. LSU’s home contest against No. 24 Alabama on Sunday (11 a.m., SEC Network) is one of five Top 25 clashes left on the schedule.
The last six games, however, have shown the Tigers are playing well enough to beat all those teams. Let’s take a look at how they’ve put themselves in such a nice position.
Improvement on glass
Mulkey after its losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt. She wasn’t happy with how her team was rebounding.
The Tigers (20-2, 6-2 SEC) haven’t lost a battle on the boards since.
Now they’ll enter their game against the Crimson Tide (19-3, 5-3) with the top average rebounding margin in the SEC (+12.3). Since Jan. 1, LSU ranks second among league teams in defensive boards per game (30) and third in offensive boards per game (15.6). Its opponents have rebounded less than 30% of their misses, according to Her Hoop Stats, which is the third-lowest rate in the SEC.
That improvement is crucial. The Tigers are built to earn extra possessions and score in transition. They can’t do either if they don’t crash the glass on both ends.
Also per Her Hoop Stats, only two SEC teams have played at a faster pace than the Tigers since league play began.
“We have really, really done a better job (rebounding),” Mulkey said. “And it's coming from everybody. It's not just your four post players. It's coming from our perimeter players, and we're the kind of team that has to do that this year.”
More depth, balance
LSU has relied heavily on its stars in recent years. Last season, for example, Aneesah Morrow, Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams were responsible for it took and 66% of the points it scored against SEC opponents.
Things are different now. The Tigers lead Division I teams in bench points, and seven of their contributors have double-digit scoring averages.
Blowout nonconference wins are inflating those numbers, but if you look at only conference games, then you’ll see that LSU is divvying up the scoring responsibilities more than it ever has since Mulkey’s tenure began in 2021.
Since Jan. 1, the Tigers’ eight leading scorers have been scoring between five and 14 points per game. None of them take more than 12 shots a night.
Transfer post players Amiya Joyner and have played well lately. So have freshman forwards Grace Knox and ZaKiyah Johnson. They look like they all can contribute valuable minutes in March.
Richard’s emergence
Few, if any, players in the SEC have improved as much as . The sophomore point guard from Opelousas couldn’t get off the bench last season. Now Mulkey rarely takes her off the floor.
In league play, Richard is playing more than 30 minutes per game and scoring 12.9 ppg while shooting 46% from the field, 35% from 3-point range and 96% from the free-throw line. She’s scored at least 20 points twice, first on Jan. 18 in a road win over No. 10 Oklahoma and again a week later in a home victory against Florida.
Richard is defending well, too. Star point guards Aaliyah Chavez and Liv McGill are two of the best scorers in the league, but they combined to shoot just 9 of 31 (29%) from the field when their Sooners and Gators played the Tigers.
LSU struggled to find a point guard who can run Mulkey’s system in the last two seasons. Richard, though, looks like a at that position. That's a huge development for both the present and future of the program.
“It wasn't like she didn't have those skills last year,” Mulkey said. “It was just adjusting to this level of college.”