Hailey Van Lith took the court as a member of the LSU women’s basketball team for the first time on Monday in front of a massive crowd. There is an expectation that Kim Mulkey and the reigning national champions will repeat this season, and the hype in Baton Rouge is unprecedented.
Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson are back after cutting down the nets. Aneesah Morrow transferred-in after lighting up the stat sheet in two years at DePaul. Hailey Van Lith arrives after leading Louisville to deep tournament runs over the last three seasons.
That list doesn’t even include true freshman Mikaylah Williams, the No. 1 (or No. 2, depending on where you look) overall prospect in the recruiting Class of 2023. 6-foot-6 center Aalyah Del Rosario also joins the roster as a five-star recruit ranked as high as the No. 4 player overall in her class.
Needless to say, LSU is set up for success. There is no reason that they should not return to the Final Four or go all of the way, again. The only difficulty will making sure that all of the mouths get fed.
With all of the buzz surrounding the Bayou Bengals, their fanbase showed up in droves for the first official practice of the year. They started arriving long before the team even took the court.
In total, 2,500 fans were in the stands at the PMAC on Monday afternoon.
Most women’s basketball teams do not draw a crowd of that size for rivalry games! It was a packed house.
Of course, the newest two-time all-ACC guard was one of the biggest draws to practice. How does Van Lith look in purple and gold?!
She looked in-shape and smooth throughout the afternoon.
Van Lith fits Mulkey’s system like a glove. Her passing is elite, which will open up the offense for Reese, Johnson, Williams and Del Rosario. At the same time, the 5-foot-7 point guard’s pull-up jumper will force opposing defenses to stay honest in their schematics. The jumper was on full display during her first appearance for the Tigers!
Mulkey underwent a life-saving heart procedure during the offseason and was back on the court with her team on Monday. Her roster is stacked. The momentum is there. LSU’s fanbase is showing out.
All of the pieces are there. Can she put them together and go back-to-back?!