Thursday night’s unlikely comeback win over Stanford advanced LSU women’s basketball to 10-0. The tough win provided perspective on the strengths of the team and the variables that will determine the season.
LSU will not enter SEC play until January, but teams like Stanford and NC State have given the Tigers a look at what high-level competition looks like. With players like Aneesah Morrow and Flau’jae Johnson, expectations are high.
From last season, the team’s main losses were Angel Reese to the draft and Hailey Van Lith to TCU. Added and returning talent provided depth to supplement those losses, but significant roster changes have inevitably made any ideas of LSU’s potential purely theoretical.
Here’s a look at the main factors that will determine the heights this team is capable of reaching.

Sa’Myah Smith

Smith showed promise off the bench during LSU’s championship season, her freshman year. She finished with 38 blocks that season, including a big forced turnover in the championship against Iowa.
Last season, Smith tore her ACL seven games in. After a long recovery process, she’s being gradually reintroduced to significant minutes.
“Sa’Myah is working extremely hard to get back to where she was when she went down,” head coach Kim Mulkey said on Thursday. “She’s not far away from that.”
The loss of Reese left a significant void in the lineup, as the team needed a big who could cause problems in the paint along with Morrow. Forcing teams to choose between Mikaylah Williams and Johnson in the backcourt or Morrow and Smith in the frontcourt is a win-win situation for the Tigers.
Should Smith grow to the promise she has showcased, her offensive and defensive aggression down low for LSU will be pivotal in big games.

Turnovers

By all accounts, Stanford should have won Thursday night. The key to staying in that game was LSU’s ability to generate turnovers. The Tigers won the turnover battle with the Cardinal by 11.
Mulkey opted for a smaller lineup which ultimately cost the team rebounds, but this deficit was made up for by swiping passes and forcing bad decisions.
Whether it’s Morrow and Smith getting blocks or Kailyn Gilbert and Mjracle Sheppard bringing pressure, the Tigers can flip possession in many ways. This makes for a huge insurance policy for slow starts, missed shots or poor decisions on offense.
Those poor decisions have not been uncommon. Causing turnovers means nothing if they’re cancelled out. From last season to the beginning of this one, LSU’s offense has had games where turning the ball over was a big problem.
Making this change primarily falls on smart ball movement, not forcing into tight windows or risking floaty lobs.
Against NC State, the Tigers turned the ball over 21 times. Bringing that number down to four against Stanford is reason for optimism.

Point guard… by committee?

After depth was an issue last season, Mulkey signed a number of high-level talents in the transfer portal, particularly at guard. Their impact has been immediate.
So far this season, Shayeann Day-Wilson has been the starter at point. But names like Gilbert and Sheppard have also made a tremendous difference when on the floor.
Day-Wilson averages just 4.1 points per game, but her contributions transcend the stat sheet. She can quiet the play of whoever brings the ball down and is a significant role in the press defense Mulkey embraces.
But she is not who Mulkey called “the best defensive player we have” – that’s Sheppard. Her speed and ability to eliminate the player across from her are fundamental to the defensive philosophy of Mulkey, and she’ll prove to be an asset down the stretch.
Easily the flashiest player off the bench has been Gilbert. She averages 11 points and 2.2 steals per game. Her tenacity especially tends to show up in big moments.
Against Stanford she sank a 3-pointer to bring the game within two with 17 seconds left. Against Washington, she turned a steal into a game-winning layup as time expired.
Don’t forget Jada Richard, the freshman coming off a state high school championship in Louisiana. She is the only freshman on LSU’s roster but offers significant upside.
Richard’s biggest game thus far was an 11-point performance against Charleston Southern, where she shot 100% including 3-for-3 from behind the arc.
This abundance of talent at point gives Mulkey a lot to work with in every kind of situation. What matters is that whoever is on the floor delivers when called upon. There’s reason to believe in that.