The LSU women’s basketball team is dripping with superstars. Angel Reese, Aneesah Morrow, Hailey Van Lith, Mikaylah Williams and Flau’jae Johnson all have been or have the potential to be All-Americans.
So it might sound strange to say that the fate of the Tigers’ season, certainly their postseason prospects, may hinge on the play of junior guard Last-Tear Poa.
This is not a knock on Poa’s ability. She’s a dogged defender, a first-class free-throw shooter and on balance the Tigers’ best point guard. Poa is the definition of a role player, the kind of player all teams need.
The kind of player this LSU women’s team needs urgently.
Van Lith has struggled in her transition from a shooting guard at Louisville to running the point at LSU. In her own words, she hasn’t been herself.
So Sunday against Florida, in the wake of LSU’s first two-game losing streak since the exact same point in the 2021-22 season, LSU coach Kim Mulkey and her staff made a concerted effort to get Poa more involved running the point.
The results paid huge dividends. No, Florida wasn’t as good as the teams that beat LSU — No. 1 South Carolina and Mississippi State. But the Gators have enough ability to be rated as the last team out of the NCAA tournament field by ESPN bracketologist Charlie Crème entering this past weekend.
LSU crushed Florida 106-66, scoring the most points against an SEC opponent in program history and matching the largest margin of victory by last season’s NCAA champions in a conference game.
Poa was a big part of that. She came off the bench to play 26½ minutes, her most by far in an SEC game, and scoring nine points with four assists.
She ran the point, allowing Van Lith to frequently slide back to the two-guard spot. She flourished, pouring in a season-high 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
Poa has been LSU’s first player off the bench for a long time this season, but more court time gives the Tigers’ more options and rotations in the backcourt. In a season when the LSU guards are starved for some support and spells of rest, Poa can be the food truck pulling up outside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“Hailey was more comfortable because she got to play her natural position,” Mulkey said Tuesday. “But she also got to play the point. Having Hailey and Poa on the floor together means we’re good, though it doesn’t mean we’re not good when they’re not together.”
LSU needs to try to squeeze more minutes out of freshman guard Janae Kent (11 minutes Sunday) and eventually freshman Angelica Velez. Both are more long-term projects. Poa is the proven commodity.
“We need the Poa from last season,” Mulkey said.
It could mean the difference between another long postseason run or a short one.
Meanwhile, the LSU men’s basketball team regained a measure of momentum Saturday with a 95-74 romp over a struggling Arkansas team. It was the Tigers who were struggling going in, having dropped three straight after an encouraging 3-1 SEC start.
The good news is LSU is now 4-4 in the SEC, two more conference victories than the Tigers had all of last season. And there are encouraging signs of progress within Matt McMahon’s second-year program with the likes of 7-foot center Will Baker (he scored 25 points against the Razorbacks), point guard Jalen Cook and freshman guard Mike Williams.
As is usually the case with LSU men’s basketball, encouragement must be tempered by cold, bracing reality. The Tigers’ next five games are a buzzsaw, with all of LSU’s opponents parked Tuesday inside the top 41 of the NCAA’s NET rankings: at Tennessee (6), Alabama (5), at Florida (41), at South Carolina (39) and Kentucky (27). For LSU to keep the positive vibes going, the Tigers have to find a way to claw to a win or two in those five games.
Barring a string of upsets, a postseason tournament bid is unlikely in LSU’s future. The Tigers are 12-9 overall and have a NET of 93.
McMahon and his program have no choice but to play the long game, to try to build toward greater respectability next season or the one after. Remember, the entire roster was graduated or in the portal at one point in 2022 after Will Wade was fired, a handicap neither Mulkey nor baseball coach Jay Johnson nor football coach Brian Kelly had to face.
It’s necessary to keep that in mind as the Tigers head into their most brutal stretch of the season.
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