“Go to a program where I could still compete for a national championship, and still play for a great coach, and a coach that kind of knows what they’re doing,” said MiLaysia Fulwiley when discussing her reason for transferring from South Carolina to LSU. Described as “The biggest transfer to occur during the last women’s college basketball offseason”, Fulwiley’s decision cast some doubt on how she would adjust with Kim Mulkey’s squad. Now, yes, LSU’s recent 102-point margin win spoke well for Fulwiley, but the head coach still believes the player has work to do.

In the aftermath of the 148-46 win against Mississippi College in an exhibition matchup, Kim Mulkey interacted with the media members. During the same, she sent her praise to MiLaysia Fulwiley, saying, “God blessed her with speed and quickness”, along with “unbelievable hand-eye coordination”. At the same time, however, Mulkey compared Fulwiley to Jada Richard, who has been a point guard “all her life”.

Mulkey needs Fulwiley to be a point guard like Jada, but it will be a transition since the player spent a majority of her time with the Gamecocks coming off the bench as a guard. “She’s not comfortable yet. Defensively, because of her athleticism, speed, and quickness, she can really harass the ball handler,” said Mulkey. “I want her to extend her minutes. I want her to understand you need to play more minutes for longer periods of time.”

The 148 points LSU recorded in the exhibition game against Mississippi College were the most during Coach Kim Mulkey’s tenure (exhibition or not). It even surpassed a 2023 regular-season win against McNeese, when the Tigers scored 133 points. While Freshman guard ZaKiyah Johnson led the team with 25 points, MiLaysia Fulwiley wasn’t that far behind with her 17 points. 13 of them were made in the 2nd-half itself.

In the first couple of minutes of action after she checked in during the game’s 1st quarter, the 20-year-old had 4 points, one rebound, and a highlight-reel behind-the-back assist before a pickpocket steal off an inbound pass that she quickly turned into points.

For this recent exhibition game, Fulwiley played as a reserve. Despite that, she did better than the main point guard, Jade Richard, who only recorded 9 points in 14 minutes of action. Fulwiley played both on the ball and on the wing. This met Mulkey’s expectations, and she wants to now build on that.

“(Fulwiley) and Jada are gonna play together, and it doesn’t matter,” said Mulkey. “It does not matter. You just want to be in that rotation of eight, and you want to play extended minutes and long minutes.”

MiLaysia Fulwiley has lots of work to do in the coming days. However, she might be willing to adapt to it. After all, she seems to be adjusting well to the LSU environment.

Bob Starkey And Flau’jae Johnson Praise MiLaysia Fulwiley’s Dedication At Practice

Back in mid-October, several members of the LSU squad spoke with CBS Sports as practice sessions were underway. During the same time, LSU associate head coach Bob Starkey stated that MiLaysia Fulwiley had been working hard to get into the point guard role. As he explained, “She’s been everything we wanted and then some. She was a kid that we didn’t know much about, other than the fact that when we played South Carolina she torched us. But she’s just such a special person, not just a player.”

Out of the 77 regular-season college games Fulwiley has played, she has only started in 3, with no starts during the 2024-25 season. She averaged 11.7 points, along with 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists, but her 42.6% field goals and 25.8% 3-pointers indicated that the player needed to improve on the scoring efficiency part.

At LSU, Fulwiley has been working on her game. According to reports, she often watched films with Starkey. She reportedly began doing so after receiving encouragement from LSU veteran Flau’jae Johnson.

“Just seeing her in practice, some of the stuff she does is like, how is she doing that?” said Johnson. “Her instincts. Talk about an instinctual player. She just makes us quicker, faster, and her mindset. I told her, whatever you need, I got you. She’s eager to learn, so that’s the best part about playing with her. She wants to learn. I told her get in that film room with Bob Starkey, and she’s been going ever since.”

Growth is never fast. However, after the encouragement, the work she puts in, and the recent exhibition game, one can only be left excited to wait and see how Johnson will perform once LSU’s regular season commences.