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SPOKANE, Wash. — There was no hope left for LSU, not enough time left on the clock with the No. 3 Tigers down eight points to No. 1 UCLA and just four seconds to play.
But junior guard Flau’Jae Johnson wasn’t about to give up until the final buzzer forced her to. She drilled one more 3-pointer from the wing while Tigers coach Kim Mulkey shrugged her shoulders from the LSU sidelines and outstretched her hands. It was too late. But she appreciated the effort nonetheless.
That’s Johnson for you.
“I remember when I took the LSU job, Flau’Jae Johnson was the first McDonald’s All-American that I signed at LSU,” Mulkey said. “I had not coached and won anything at LSU, and she came to LSU. So she jump-started our program, really.
“I’m forever indebted to Flau’Jae Johnson.”
LSU’s season came to an end Sunday afternoon in Spokane, where the Bruins got the best of the Tigers in the Elite Eight with a 72-65 win.
Johnson, who is eligible for next month’s WNBA Draft, has a decision to make in a couple of weeks about her future. She said she would seek counsel from both her mother and Mulkey.
Big4️⃣ Big Triple
📺ABC pic.twitter.com/JS3gRXdxQe
— LSU Women’s Basketball (@LSUwbkb) March 30, 2025
But presuming No. 4 returns to Baton Rouge for her senior season, LSU should be contenders again. And the Savannah, Ga., native, who scored a career-high 28 points against UCLA (including 16 in the fourth quarter) knows precisely what she’d want. Sadness aside, Johnson sounded as hungry as ever, sitting by her locker after the loss.
“We’re going to Elite Eights, but that’s not success for me,” Johnson said, referring to LSU losing in the regional final for the second consecutive year. “Some people (are) happy being in the Elite Eight.”
Her voice rose in pitch.
“I want to be in the Final Four. Once you taste the national championship, you want more. And I feel like that national championship I had (as a freshman), yeah, I was a big factor in it, but there were bigger factors in that. I want my own one. Where I lead the team. That’s what you really want.”
Johnson, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2022, started in all 36 games during LSU’s national championship run in 2022-23 and averaged 11 points with 5.9 rebounds as the SEC Freshman of the Year. She had 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a historic national championship win against Iowa and Caitlin Clark. But that team was largely led by star forward Angel Reese and point guard Alexis Morris.
With senior forward Aneesah Morrow now off to the WNBA, the torch is Johnson’s. If the Tigers get to where they want to be this time next year, Johnson will have led them there.
“Not to take away my national championship, but still,” Johnson said. “I want to do something where I’m one of the leaders on the team. This year we had that. … And now it’s just over with. That quick.”
Morrow, the All-American who led the Tigers this season with 18.8 points per game and fought through a bloody nose to finish with 15 points versus the Bruins, said she and Johnson have talked about what that next step looks like.
Some of those conversations have been tough, with Morrow imploring Johnson to do more. But that’s only because she knows what Johnson is capable of.
“I’ve seen her mature so much. I’m extremely proud of her,” Morrow said. “It’s not just about leading us physically, because I was in that position before and I thought, ‘Oh, you can just lead physically.’ But when you are verbal — and with how dominant of a player that she is herself — people are going to automatically follow you.
“Yes, physically you can lead. But verbally, people are going to listen.”
Johnson won’t have to do it alone.
The Tigers are set to return sophomore guard Mikaylah Williams — the other third of LSU’s Big Three alongside Johnson and Murrow — and center Sa’Myah Smith, who anchored a Tigers defense that gave 6-foot-7 UCLA center Lauren Betts more problems than most. LSU also has the nation’s top recruiting class thanks to four incoming five-star prospects in forward Grace Knox and guards Divine Bourrage, ZaKiyah Johnson and Bella Hines — all top-30 recruits. Mulkey, of course, will attack the transfer portal, too, as she did when she picked up Morrow and Reese.
“It’s time to get in the portal,” Mulkey said. “This one leaves, this one goes, this one comes. So next year we’ll start this thing up again and see what kind of team you have and go to work.”
But it all starts with Johnson, who has one more year if she wants it. In the coming days, she’ll rest up and let her leg heal from a stress reaction before turning her attention toward what’s next: workouts and taking over the Tigers … if she wants it.
“We left a good legacy. We broke a lot of records,” Johnson said of this season’s crew. “(But) we were at the game to win the trophy and we had the game to win the trophy.
“There’s just a lot to learn for sure.”
(Photo of Flau’jae Johnson: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
