Expectations are always high with the LSU faithful, but a core of Flau’jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams and MiLaysia Fulwiley returning to center stage seemed more than just mere optimism.
Heading into the NCAA Tournament, LSU women’s basketball finished the season 27-5 and earned the No. 2 seed in its region, making it the highest seeding head coach Kim Mulkey has earned with the Tigers.
However, after winning its first two games by an average margin of 56 points, the Tigers traveled to Sacramento, where their championship hopes evaporated. The result was an 86-85 loss to Duke in the Sweet 16.
As promising of a season LSU had, there were still some glaring issues that held it back and will have to be addressed if the Tigers want to get over the hump heading into next season.
Rebounding
In sports, the phrase “numbers don’t lie” is frequently used. While there may be some truth to it, numbers can also be deceiving.
LSU finished the season ranked No. 3 in the country in rebounds per game with 48.1 and No. 2 in the SEC behind Oklahoma.
The Tigers also ranked No. 3 nationally and No. 1 in the SEC for offensive rebounds per game with 17.3.
With numbers like those, one would think LSU dominated, but there’s more to the story.
In the first conference game of the season against Kentucky, the Wildcats out-rebounded the Tigers 45-29, including 17 offensive rebounds, while LSU only had four, resulting in a loss for the Tigers
In that game, Williams, who’s listed at 6-feet tall, led the team with eight rebounds. That’s more rebounds than 6-foot-5 Kate Koval and 6-foot-2 Amiya Joyner combined.
This game foreshadowed what type of season it was going to be if the Tigers couldn’t fix the rebounding issues.
Despite winning the rebounding margin by 20 against Vanderbilt, the Commodores still had 14 offensive rebounds.
After some extra motivation with “Mebounds” T-shirts trademarked by Angel Reese and using a “bubble” device to help simulate rebounds in practice, it seemed like the rebounding woes were behind them.
But against the Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament, the woes re-emerged. Despite both teams having 41 total rebounds, it was the Tigers who were on the wrong side of things.
Duke grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and had 19 second-chance points, while LSU only had 15 and 12 second-chance points.
“We couldn’t grab a rebound,” Mulkey said. “And you look at the stats, and we had the same number of rebounds, but that’s misleading. We couldn’t rebound the ball so that we could take off and transition. And it was just kind of like we were moving in mud.”
Mulkey stated that she intends to bring in two to three players from the transfer portal, and there’s a good chance a post player and someone who can rebound will be an option at the top of her list.
Players like Addy Brown from Iowa State, Nunu Agara from Stanford or Gracie Merkle from Penn State are all in the transfer portal and averaged more than eight rebounds this past season.
Turnovers
Turnovers are one of the most likely ways to lose any basketball game.
When a team is giving away the ball and giving away possessions that could potentially result in points, it’s going to be hard to overcome those moments in a game.
For LSU, turnovers were another problem in close games, as the Tigers averaged 14.8 per game.
While turnovers weren’t necessarily a big problem against Duke, it was still a problem throughout the season.
In the loss against the Commodores, LSU committed 22 turnovers compared to Vanderbilt’s 12. Against Texas, where it lost by 13, the Tigers had 19 turnovers while the Longhorns only had 10.
Many turnovers for the Tigers stemmed from the perimeter players like Johnson, Fulwiley and Williams, who are ball-dominant and initiate the offense. The trio led the team in turnovers, combining for an average of 6.5 per game.
LSU finished seventh for the fewest turnovers committed in the SEC, but when looking at the teams that made this year’s Final Four, it was the ability to take care of the ball that allowed them to reach Phoenix.
Texas and South Carolina were ranked No. 1 (12.1) and No. 2 (12.9) in the SEC, while UConn led the Big East with 12.6 and UCLA, the national champions, finished third in the Big 10 with 12.9 per game.
While the difference was roughly two turnovers between the Tigers and the Final Four teams, it’s something the Tigers are going to have to cut down.
Perimeter defending
The Tigers struggled guarding the perimeter by having defensive lapses, not guarding their assignments and letting star players have good games.
Tonie Morgan for Kentucky scored 24 points, including the game-winning shot. Mikayla Blakes for Vanderbilt scored 32 points and South Carolina’s Tessa Johnson had 21, scoring 16 of them in the first half.
Duke was led by forward Toby Fourneir, who does most of her work in the post using her height and athleticism to score. While she did have 22 points, guards Taina Mair, who also scored 22 and Ashlon Jackson, who had 19, gave the Tigers fits.
Outside of Fulwiley, Jada Richard and freshman guard Bella Hines, the perimeter defense for LSU was not as strong as it could’ve been.
Fulwiley was one of the best defenders in the SEC, averaging 2.8 steals per game and 1.4 blocks per game while taking on the responsibility of usually guarding the opposing team’s best player when she was on the court.
Hines found herself a role early on this LSU team by taking charges on defense, defending and going viral against the Gamecocks for wanting the responsibility of guarding Tessa Johnson.
However, it was announced Tuesday afternoon that Hines would be leaving the Tigers and entering the transfer portal, leaving another hole on the defensive end.
With more and more players entering the portal, LSU will want to look to add a few players who can lock down on the defensive end but also contribute on offense.
A pair of Tennessee Volunteers, Talysia Cooper and Jaida Civil, have demonstrated high defensive skills and could be possible options for the Tigers. Cooper ranks No. 4 according to ESPN’s Charlie Creme transfer rankings for this offseason and Civil ranks No. 20.
