Will Flau’jae Johnson from LSU go to Wnba? Or will the championship goals bring it back?

Spokane, Wash. – There was no hope for LSU, it did not remain enough time on the clock with the tigers n. 3 down eight points at the UCLA n. 1 and only four seconds to play.

But the junior guard Flau’jae Johnson was about to give up until the final cyclino forced him to do it. He perforated another 3-pointer from the wing while the tiger coach Kim Mulkey tightened his back from the field of the LSU field and made his hands unstipn. It was too late. But he still appreciated the effort.

This is Johnson for you.

“I remember when I took the work LSU, Flau’jae Johnson was the first McDonald all-American all-American that I signed at the LSU,” Mulkey said. “I had not trained and won anything to the LSU, and she came to LSU. So she skipped our program, really.

“They are forever debt with Flau’jae Johnson.”

The LSU season ended on Sunday afternoon in Spokane, where the Bruins got the best from the tigers in Elite eight with a 72-65 victory.

Johnson, who has the right to the Wnba draft next month, has a decision to make within 48 hours of loss of LSU on his future. He said he would look for advice from his mother and Mulkey.

Big4️⃣ big triple

📺ABC pic.twitter.com/js3grxdxqe

– LSU female basketball (@LSUWBKB) March 30, 2025

But assuming that the number 4 returns to Baton Rouge for his senior season, LSU should be contenders again. And the native of Savannah, Georgia, who scored 28 career points against the UCLA (of which 16 in the fourth quarter) knows exactly what he would have liked. Apart from the sadness, Johnson seemed hungry that never, sitting next to his locker after loss.

“Let’s go to eight Élite, but it didn’t happen for me,” said Johnson, referring to the LSU that loses in the regional final for the second consecutive year. “Some people (they are) happy to be in the eight elite.”

His voice got on the pitch.

“I want to be in the Final Four. Once the national championship is tasted, you want more. And I feel like that national championship that I had (as a serial number), yes, I was a great factor, but there were bigger factors in this. I want mine. Where I drive the team. It’s what you really want.”

Johnson, a four-star recruit in the 2022 class, began in all 36 games during the race of the LSU National Championship in 2022-23 and on average 11 points with 5.9 rebounds as a serial number of the century. He had 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a historic victory of the national championship against Iowa and Caitlin Clark. But that team was largely led by the attacker Star Angel Reese and the Punta Guardia Alexis Morris.

With the attacker Senior Anesah Morrow now at Wnba, the torch is Johnson. If the tigers arrive where they want to be this time next year, Johnson will have led them there.

“Don’t remove my national championship, but still,” said Johnson. “I want to do something in which I am one of the team leaders. This year we had that. … And now it’s just over. So fast.”

Morrow, the All-American who led the tigers this season with 18.8 points per game and fought through a bleeding nose to end with 15 points against the Bruins, said she and Johnson spoke about how that next step appears.

Some of these conversations have been difficult, with Morrow who implores Johnson to do more. But it’s just because he knows what Johnson is capable of.

“I saw her mature so much. I am extremely proud of her,” Morrow said. “It is not just about driving us physically, because before I was in that position and I thought:” Oh, you can only physically drive “. But when you are a verbal – and with how dominant to a player it is herself – people will follow you automatically.

“Yes, physically you can drive. But verbally, people will listen to.”

Johnson will not have to do it alone.

The tigers are intended to return the second year guard Mikaylah Williams-the other third of the three greats of the LSU together with Johnson and Murrow-and the Sa’myah Smith center, which anchored a defense of the tigers that gave the center of 6 feet-7 Lauren Betts more problems than most. LSU also has the best class of recruitment of the nation thanks to four five-star incoming perspectives in the Grace Knox attacker and Divine Bourrage guards, Zakiyah Johnson and Bella Hines-Tutte the first 30 recruits. Mulkey, of course, will also attack the transfer portal, as he did when he collected Morrow and Reese.

“It’s time to enter the portal,” Mulkey said. “This goes, this goes, this comes. So next year we will start this thing again and we will see what type of team you have and you will go to work.”

But it all starts with Johnson, who has another year if he wants it. In the next few days, he will rest and let his leg he healed by a stress reaction before turning to his attention to what is the next: training and hiring the tigers … if he wants it.

“We left a good inheritance. We beat many records,” said Johnson about this season’s crew. “(But) we were at stake to win the trophy and we had the game to win the trophy.

“There is a lot to learn with certainty.”

(Photo by Flau’jae Johnson: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)