The LSU women’s basketball team soon will take on what’s arguably the toughest nonconference schedule it has faced since coach Kim Mulkey took over the program in 2021.
But before they hit their challenging matchups, the Tigers will first play a string of nine tuneups in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center — two exhibition contests and seven regular-season games. The stretch, which begins at 7 p.m. Thursday against the University of North Texas at Dallas, will give Mulkey chances to experiment with her rotation and evaluate the two freshmen expected to compete for roles inside of it.
Ideally, both Lola Lampley and Anna Minaeva will be ready to contribute right away.
“They’re gonna have to play,” Mulkey said on Oct. 13.
Lampley is a 6-foot-2 former McDonald’s All-American from Indiana. Minaeva, 17, is 6-5 and from Russia.
Both will play in the post for the Tigers. They’re expected to log heavy minutes in November, in large part because LSU is already down two frontcourt players who were on the roster at the start of the academic year. Junior Kate Koval left the program, and Spanish forward Noa Morro underwent surgery to address a stress fracture in her shin.
While Morro recovers (she’s out until at least late November), Mulkey expects Lampley and Minaeva will be “thrown to the wolves.” They’ll have “great moments,” she said, and “not-so-great moments” against the stiff competition LSU is set to face both before and after the calendar flips to 2027.
The Tigers have played only four Top 25 nonconference teams across the last five seasons.
This year, they have three preseason AP Top 25 teams on their nonconference schedule — No. 2 UConn, No. 12 North Carolina and No. 25 North Carolina State — and a fourth that received votes in the preseason poll but missed the cut (Villanova).
Mulkey told The Advocate in August that although she didn’t intentionally build a tougher nonconference schedule, she was confident that her new-look roster could handle some challenging battles in November and December.
“I don’t ever want to over-schedule,” Mulkey said. “Losing is one thing. But if you’re losing with kids that can get over it, and they don’t just melt, then you can schedule nonconference a little bit tougher.”
The good news for LSU is that it has time before the schedule stiffens up, and Morro could return right around the time it does.
After the Tigers play their two exhibition games on Thursday against UNT Dallas and on Oct. 29 against Loyola-New Orleans, they’ll host Southeastern Louisiana in their season opener Nov. 2.
From there, LSU will face Texas Southern, McNeese State, Denver, Troy, Fairleigh Dickinson and Belmont before traveling to Fort Myers, Florida, to take on Villanova and NC State the week of Thanksgiving.
Then comes an ACC/SEC Challenge road game against North Carolina, a matchup with Houston in Houston and the UConn showdown, which will tip off in Nashville, Tennessee, on Dec. 20. LSU also has tuneups against Northwestern State, Stonehill and Alcorn State sprinkled in among those contests.
It’s a compelling slate, one that will show just how ready Lampley, Minaeva, Morro and the rest of the newcomers are to dive into Southeastern Conference play come January.
“In some ways,” Mulkey said, “it’s gonna be a team that probably has a few ups and downs, but at the end of the day, I think their mindset is very good, and I have not gone to practice yet where I’ve left upset.”
Then Mulkey cracked a smile and laughed.
“So maybe I need to get upset about something, right?”
