BATON ROUGE, La. — The final score was never going to tell us much. When LSU women’s basketball scheduled an exhibition against NAIA program UNT-Dallas, the outcome was predetermined the moment the contracts were signed. But the 159-31 final Thursday night inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center offered the first real glimpse of what Kim Mulkey’s sixth LSU team might look like—and the early impressions are equal parts dazzling and incomplete.
Here is what we learned from the Tigers’ opening exhibition.
The Fulwiley-Williams Backcourt Is Going to Be a Problem
For years, MiLaysia Fulwiley has been college basketball’s most electric sixth woman. On Thursday, she looked like a player ready to shed that label entirely.
Fulwiley finished with 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting, including 7 of 11 from beyond the arc, to go with 17 assists and seven steals . The stat line is absurd on its face, but the manner in which she accumulated it was more impressive. She played with a control and pace that suggested a player who has fully internalized Mulkey’s system after transferring from South Carolina.
Equally notable was Mikaylah Williams, who poured in 22 points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting from three and added 11 steals . The defensive aggression from both guards was relentless. UNT-Dallas committed 46 turnovers, many of them born from the sheer pressure exerted by LSU’s perimeter defenders .
Mulkey has said Fulwiley is more comfortable now, that she wants to take her defense and conditioning to another level . If Thursday was any indication, the SEC’s former Sixth Woman of the Year might be positioning herself for a far more prominent role—perhaps even a starting spot alongside Williams in the backcourt.
Depth Is Not a Concern—At Least Not on the Perimeter
Seven LSU players scored in double figures. Five scored 20 or more . ZaKiyah Johnson added 23 points. Grace Knox had 21 on 10-of-13 shooting. Laila Reynolds was perfect from the field with 20 points. Freshman Lola Lampley chipped in 13, and Iowa State transfer Jada Williams dished out seven assists to go with 12 points .
The ball movement was exceptional: 43 assists on 59 made field goals . LSU shot 70.2% from the floor and 61.5% from three-point range . Those numbers are inflated by the level of competition, certainly, but the unselfishness and pace are real. This is a team that wants to run, and it has the guards to do it.
The caveat, of course, is that UNT-Dallas is not an SEC opponent. The Trailblazers’ tallest rotation player would be a wing in the SEC. Extrapolating a 128-point margin to conference play would be foolish. But the offensive infrastructure—the spacing, the willingness to make the extra pass, the transition aggression—looks ahead of schedule for a team that lost Flau’jae Johnson to the WNBA and welcomed six newcomers .
The Post Is a Work in Progress, and That’s Being Generous
Here is where the optimism must be tempered. LSU’s frontcourt is thinner than Mulkey would like, and Thursday did nothing to alleviate those concerns.
Noa Morro, the Spanish forward expected to compete for a starting role, is out until at least late November after surgery to address a stress fracture in her shin . Anna Minaeva, the 17-year-old 6-foot-5 Russian center, missed the exhibition with a quad injury and is being brought along cautiously . Kate Koval, who was projected to anchor the paint, left the program before the season .
That left Lampley—a 6-foot-2 freshman recruited as a perimeter player—logging significant minutes in the post against UNT-Dallas . She acquitted herself well offensively, but the physicality of SEC play will be a different beast entirely. Grace Knox, at 6-foot-2, competed inside as a freshman but was occasionally overmatched against stronger forwards .
Mulkey has acknowledged the reality. “They’re gonna be thrown to the wolves,” she said of her young posts . The Tigers have rebounding standards to maintain—they have ranked among the nation’s five best rebounding teams in each of the last four seasons—and doing so without Morro and Minaeva for the foreseeable future will require collective effort from the guards.
Mulkey’s Scheduling Philosophy Is Worth Noting
The exhibition itself was lopsided, but Mulkey’s comments afterward revealed something about her approach. She noted that UNT-Dallas coach Otis Nixon had been asking for the opportunity to play at LSU for years, and that LSU helped the program financially .
“I know a lot of coaches don’t do that, but I do it,” Mulkey said. “My heart goes out to programs that need some money” .
It is a small gesture in the grand scheme, but it reflects a willingness to use LSU’s resources to support smaller programs—and to treat exhibitions as what they are: opportunities to work on things in a controlled environment. Mulkey compared it to a practice against the “Dream Team” . The score mattered less than the reps.
The Verdict
This LSU team is going to score a lot of points. The backcourt of Fulwiley and Williams might be the best offensive guard duo in the SEC, and the perimeter depth is genuine. The defensive pressure is elite.
But the post is a question mark that will not be answered until Morro and Minaeva are healthy and integrated. The Tigers open the regular season against Southeastern Louisiana on Nov. 2 before a challenging nonconference slate that includes UConn, North Carolina, and NC State . By the time SEC play arrives in January, Mulkey needs her bigs healthy and ready.
For now, the early impression is this: LSU is a team with a sky-high ceiling and a floor that depends entirely on whether its frontcourt can hold up. The guards will keep them in every game. The posts will determine how far they go.
LSU returns to action Thursday, Oct. 29, against Loyola-New Orleans in its final exhibition before the games start counting .
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