BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Former LSU point guard Jada Richard said Tuesday that she relied on her “faith in God” when she decided to leave the Tigers in April and sign with Ole Miss.
Richard, an Opelousas native, started 34 games last season as a sophomore at LSU. Coach Kim Mulkey and her staff initially believed that she would return for the 2026-27 season and play a similarly important role as a junior, but the 5-foot-7 guard reversed course and landed with the Rebels instead.
“I would say everyone that knows me knows that I’m strong in my faith, strong in my faith in God,” Richard said at SEC Media Days, “and I’m not ashamed of it. I would just say that when you’re that in tune with yourself, that’s what drives my life, and a lot of people may not understand, but it’s not for anyone to understand.
“The only thing that matters is that I’m here at Ole Miss, and I think that’s what we should focus on.”
It’s important to point out that what Richard decided to do is common now. LSU lost five players from its 2025-26 roster to the transfer portal, including starter Kate Koval, the Ukrainian center who left the program in August, obtained an NCAA waiver and landed with Baylor after the Tigers announced they had signed Russian center Anna Minaeva.
More than 20 players transferred from one SEC program to another this past offseason, too. Mulkey and her staff signed one of them, former Florida guard Laila Reynolds, a year after they did the same with MiLaysia Fulwiley – the All-SEC senior guard who left her hometown South Carolina program in 2025 to join one of its chief rivals.
Richard isn’t even the only starting point guard who left behind a school in her home state last transfer cycle so she could join another one in a neighboring state. Zya Vann, a 5-foot-9 guard from Edmond, Oklahoma, transferred away from the Sooners in April and signed with Texas.
But LSU was still “certainly caught off guard” by Richard’s decision to leave, Mulkey told The Advocate in July.
Now she’s expected to start at point guard for Ole Miss and serve as “the leader of the team,” coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said on Tuesday.
“For me, it was a no-brainer once she got in the portal,” McPhee-McCuin said, “that I would want to recruit her. Just because I believed in her before she even got to college.”
McPhee-McCuin was one of the coaches who recruited Richard when she was a star at Lafayette Christian Academy. Richard said that she was looking for a winning program after she entered the portal and that she landed on Ole Miss, in part, because she already knew McPhee-McCuin well.
Ole Miss’ ninth-year coach, Richard said, was the “common denominator” behind her new teammates’ decisions to sign with the Rebels. McPhee-McCuin has nine transfers on her 2026-27 roster.
“She’s gonna keep it 100%,” Richard said. “She don’t really care how you feel about it, and that’s something that kind of reminded me of myself.”
Richard also said she wants to start working as a coach once she’s done playing. She says she “sees a future” with McPhee-McCuin “outside of basketball.”
“She’s somebody that I feel like I can kind of see myself in,” Richard said.
Once LSU lost Richard, it pivoted quickly to former Iowa State point guard Jada Williams – one of the top players in the transfer portal. She’ll run point this coming season for a new-look roster that’s led by All-SEC guards Mikaylah Williams and Fulwiley.
Richard is set to face her old teammates in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Feb. 1. She said Tuesday that she’s “excited” to play for Ole Miss now, in part because she thinks the program “has a chip on its shoulder.” She noticed that trait when she was “on the other side of the fence” at LSU.
“They’re tough,” Richard said. “They’re intense. They’re going to guard for 40 minutes, so that’s something that I wanted to be a part of, and like I said, I’m happy to be here.”
