BATON ROUGE – The full schedule for the upcoming LSU Women’s Basketball season was released Wednesday morning in conjunction with the Southeastern Conference.
This season will be the second for Head Coach Kim Mulkey at LSU as she is coming off the best turnaround by a first-year head coach in SEC history, helping her win AP National Coach of the Year. Under Coach Mulkey’s first year of leadership the Tigers went 26-6, finished second in the SEC and hosted first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament, but after losing a load of seniors that included WNBA draft picks Khayla Pointer and Faustine Aifuwa, the Tigers will look to numerous first-year players at LSU to keep the Mulkey momentum rolling.
Coach Mulkey brought in a star-studded freshmen class of Flaujae Johnson, Sa’Myah Smith, Alisa Williams and Izzy Besselman. LSU also added the top transfer in this year’s cycle, Angel Reese (Maryland), as well as the top Juco player in the nation, Last-Tear Poa (Northwest Florida State College). Jasmine Carson (West Virginia), Kateri Poole (Ohio State) and LaDazhia Williams (Missouri) were three other roster additions in the transfer portal. The nine newcomers will look to mesh with key contributors from last year’s squad such as Hannah Gusters, Alexis Morris and Ryann Payne.
The Tigers’ non-conference schedule is highlighted by trips to Bimini, Bahamas for the Goombay Splash over Thanksgiving to take on George Mason and UAB as well as a trip to Maui a week before Christmas. The Tigers will face Oregon State at the Maui Classic plus another team still to be announced.
LSU’s sole true road game of non-conference play will come on December 3 when the Tigers travel to New Orleans for a matchup against Tulane.
The Tigers are set to host their first five games of the season in the PMAC, beginning on November 7 against Bellarmine. Mississippi Valley will travel to Baton Rouge on November 11, followed by Western Carolina on November 13, Houston Baptist on November 16 and Northwestern State on November 20.
Following LSU’s Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas against George Mason and UAB, LSU will return home to host Southeastern on November 29 before the trip to Tulane on December 3. LSU’s final two non-conference home games will be on December 11 against New Orleans and December 14 against Lamar. The Tigers will complete the non-conference portion of their schedule in Maui against Oregon State and one additional opponent still to be announced on December 17-18.
To begin conference play LSU will travel to Fayetteville on December 29 to take on Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena. LSU’s first home game in the SEC will be on New Year’s Day as LSU is set to welcome Vanderbilt to Baton Rouge followed by another home game against Texas A&M on January 5.
LSU will take to the road for its next two matchups in Memorial Coliseum on January 8 at Kentucky and in Columbia against Missouri on January 12. The Tigers will return home for games against Auburn on January 15 against Auburn and January 19 against Arkansas. A trip to Tuscaloosa will follow on January 23 before a bye week.
Following the bye, LSU will be home to take on Tennessee on January 30. The Tigers will stay home to face Georgia on February 2.
As the season begins to wind down, LSU will finish with four of its final six games on the road. The Tigers will take on Texas A&M in College Station on January 5 before another bye week gearing up to face the defending National Champion South Carolina Gamecocks on February 12 in Colonial Life Arena.
LSU will be back in the PMAC to host Ole Miss on February 16 before, once again, hitting the road to Gainesville against Florida on February 19 and in Nashville against Vanderbilt on February 23. The regular season will wrap up in Baton Rouge on February 26 when the Tigers host Mississippi State.
The SEC and SEC Network will announce the television broadcast schedule at a later date.
This year’s SEC Tournament will take place from March 1-5 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
The 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Selection Show will take place on Sunday, March 12 with play for March Madness set to begin later that same week.