LSU coach Kim Mulkey’s No. 6 Tigers blew out the Florida Gators 89-60 on Monday evening at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center to improve to 19-2. After starting their SEC slate with two consecutive losses, the Tigers have recovered and strung together five consecutive wins.
Once again, against the Gators, the scoring burden was shared around, with sophomore guard Jada Richard leading all LSU scorers with 20 points against the Gators.
Kim Mulkey Explains LSU’s Identity
Extraordinarily, seven players in the Tigers’ roster, led by transfer guard MiLaysia Fulwiley, are averaging double-digit points so far this season, emphasizing the offensive depth built by Mulkey.
Against Florida, LSU’s most talented stars, Fulwiley (15 points) and Flau’jae Johnson (8 points), were overshadowed by Richards, and the Tigers still won comfortably, emphasizing the team’s non-reliance on its game changers.
During her postgame news conference, Mulkey revealed that sharing the offensive burden across the team, rather than having one player take all the shots, was the Tigers’ identity.
“I would think that’s part of our identity,” Mulkey said. “Who you gonna stop? Usually, you have three or four. You never know from game to game who I’m gonna start at the post and all four of them could start and have started. Look at Flau’jae and Mikaylah’s rebounding. Look at Kate (Koval), only played 15 minutes and got 10 rebounds.
“Grace (Knox), the thing she did tonight, she got in foul trouble, she tried to take a charge, didn’t she? That touched my heart.”
Before this season, Mulkey had not managed to coax out a 20-point game from one of her point guards since Hailey Van Lith managed 26 points against Tennessee in 2024. Richard has already managed that feat twice in LSU’s last three games.
Mulkey Does Not Have a Fixed Starting Lineup
During her postgame news conference, Mulkey further explained why she did not have a fixed starting lineup this season.
“I’m really not settled on any of them,” Mulkey said. “I can start (MiLaysia Fulwiley) tomorrow in place of Jada. It’s not anything other than well, Jada, I might need Jada to go in when these two sub in against a certain opponent, because she knows how to feed them better. I have a lot of decisions that I can make the rest of this year.
“I can go big still, I can go small in there. It looks like I do because the last four or five games, but Starkey and I discuss in detail, ‘Are these the ones that need to start? Are these the ones that need to be on the floor playing together?'”
After two consecutive Elite Eight eliminations, Mulkey has rebuilt the Tigers roster in line with the elite teams in the country and is attempting to win another national championship with the Tigers.
