BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Mike Neighbors was looking forward to seeing Mikaylah Williams in person on Tuesday. The former Arkansas coach and current SEC Network analyst is one of her biggest fans. He has been for almost a decade.

So Neighbors was bummed about the fog. Because it hung over the Baton Rouge area on Tuesday long enough to spoil LSU’s travel plans for SEC Media Days, he couldn’t speak face-to-face with the freshman he once compared to Maya Moore. The one who prompted him to joke he wished the WNBA would change its eligibility rules so she’d leave college basketball and never torch one of his teams for 21 points again.

Plan B was Zoom. That’s how Neighbors got to touch base with Williams one final time before her senior season.

Neighbors was on a TV set in a boutique hotel ballroom in Birmingham, Alabama.

Williams was at a table somewhere inside coach Kim Mulkey’s house, talking to Neighbors and other media members about the season ahead.

“She’s just oozing with confidence,” Neighbors said in a hallway during a break between segments.

And for good reason: Williams now is the unquestioned face of LSU’s women’s basketball program. Angel Reese is gone. Now Flau’jae Johnson is, too. Williams still has two high-profile teammates in senior guards MiLaysia Fulwiley and Jada Williams, but neither of them have been with the Tigers as long as she has. The 2026-27 season, which tips off for LSU on Nov. 2, will be her fourth in Baton Rouge.

When they were recruiting Williams, Mulkey and her staff sold the Bossier City native on the possibility that their program could one day be hers. Williams committed to the Tigers before Reese ever appeared in a game for them, which was an early sign that Mulkey had begun restoring the program into the national power it is today.

LSU won the 2023 national title, reached the Elite Eight in 2024 and 2025 before falling in the Sweet 16 last season. It’s still trying to climb back into the Final Four.

Now, if this is the season the Tigers break through again, then Williams will be the one who led them there.

“You’re not gonna see the Mikaylah’s of the world and the Flau’jae’s of the world much anymore,” Mulkey said. “And what I meant by that is staying where they started. You’ll see a few across the country. To me, it’s more about probably how they were raised, and you stay the course. The grass isn’t always greener at other places.”

The challenge, for Williams, will be leading a program with its fair share of newcomers.

The Tigers lost five players from their 2026-27 roster to the transfer portal. LSU’s new-look group features two freshmen, three transfers and an international signee. The group isn’t particularly deep either: because center Kate Koval left the program in August, there are now only 11 total players on the roster. One of them (Spanish forward Noa Morro) is even out until at least late November with a stress fracture in her shin.

Mulkey thinks Williams will have to take on more responsibilities. And Neighbors thinks she can handle them.

The former Arkansas coach has been watching Williams drain her signature pull-up jumpers since she was in eighth grade. He’s even seen her play softball and marveled at how hard she could hit.

Since Williams has been playing college basketball, Neighbors has seen her make a “slow, steady progression”. She deferred to her older teammates in her freshman season. Then, across the last two years, she’s gradually grown into the player Neighbors thought she could become when he first watched her take the floor.

“She’s so dangerous in the last two minutes,” he said. “So dangerous.

“She’s got the confidence to make the play, the ability to make the play. A lot of people have the ability but not the confidence, and she’s got them both.”

Now LSU wants to see if Williams has the leadership skills. The star senior is the quiet, soft-spoken type. The player who prefers to lead by example. The Tigers, though, need her to use her voice more – now more than ever.

“I think, for me,” Williams said, “leading this team would be having to speak up and speak often.”

And driving a large chunk of the offense, too, of course. Williams has improved her shooting efficiency from both the field and from beyond the arc in all three years of her career. Last season, she shot 51% from the field and 42% from 3-point range, while grabbing a career-high 5.3 rebounds per game and assisting a career-high 3.6 shots per game.

Williams’ scoring average was down. But that’s because she was playing fewer minutes than she did as a sophomore. LSU had a deep, versatile roster that set NCAA scoring records before Duke ended its season in the Sweet 16 with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

After that loss, Williams said she was “frustrated ” to fall short of the Final Four for the third year in a row.

On Tuesday, she said via Zoom that she had “unfinished business” and that she was “excited” to renew LSU’s push for a Final Four spot.

“Everybody’s ready to learn,” Williams said. “Everybody’s bought in. Everybody works extremely hard. And just the culture we have and the team chemistry we have is one of the best I’ve had since I’ve been here.

“So I’m just excited.”

Neighbors is, too. That was clear on Tuesday – despite the fog.