LSU won a national championship last month. There is a very good chance they will be better next season.
The Bayou Bengals have landed a commitment from former DePaul forward Aneesah Morrow, the top remaining name in the transfer portal, after having already secured the services of Louisville star Hailey Van Lith.
Those commitments mean head coach Kim Mulkey’s program will once again be loading up on transfers after riding that strategy to a title last season, with Maryland transfer Angel Reese, Texas A&M transfer Alexis Morris, Missouri transfer LaDazhia Williams and West Virginia transfer Jasmine Carson. All of those players save for Reese declared for the 2023 WNBA Draft, leaving the Tigers with some reloading to do.
Morrow is coming off a monster sophomore season at DePaul, where she averaged 25.7 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.6 steals, 2.0 assists and 1.3 blocks per game, earning third-team All-American honors with the Associated Press. She received second-team honors and the Big East Freshman of the Year Award the previous season.
Adding Morrow is a particularly big win for LSU given that she was supposed to be spending this weekend on a visit to rival South Carolina, who are looking to rebuild after losing Aaliyah Boston and four others to the WNBA Draft.
At LSU, Morrow won’t be expected to stuff the stat sheet like she did in Chicago given the level of talent she’ll be playing alongside. Reese, Morrow and Van Lith alone combined to average 56.7 field goal attempts per game last year, not far off from what an entire team might average in a season.
In addition to Reese, the Tigers are returning the reigning SEC Freshman of the Year Flau’jae Johnson, plus other rotation players like Sa’Myah Smith. They will also be joined by the top recruiting class in college basketball, headlined by ESPN’s No. 2 overall recruit Mikaylah Williams and No. 7 recruit Aalyah Del Rosario.
All of that adds up to LSU being a lock as the No. 1 preseason team next season, and the program might not even be done yet given the buzz around former third-team All American Ashley Owusu.
