Flau’jae Johnson Says She Will Return to LSU

There isn’t much Flau’jae Johnson keeps close to the vest. 

As an NCAA champion and popular rapper with a raft of endorsements, a reality of Johnson’s life is that she is required to share. And yet, in recent weeks, there was a key piece missing from her announcement that she would be returning to college to exhaust her final year of eligibility. 

Where? 

“Yes, I’m coming back to LSU,” Johnson told Front Office Sports on Wednesday.  

The decision, Johnson said, was layered. Johnson didn’t necessarily contemplate entering the transfer portal, which closed Wednesday, but there were conversations she needed to have with coach Kim Mulkey to ensure her return. 

“This is my last year,” Johnson said. “I definitely want to win, but I want to make sure I’m being developed to be the player that I want to be in the WNBA. Trying to find out how I can make that happen this year. I want to be as prepared as possible.” 

When Johnson contemplates her future WNBA career, she doesn’t see a gap between the player she is and the one she thinks she should be at the next level. What she sees is an opportunity to return to a style of play that shaped her high school career and earned her the recognition of a four-time NCAA champion coach. 

At Sprayberry High School in Georgia, Johnson was playing point guard, which hasn’t been her consistent role in Mulkey’s system. The biggest point of emphasis for Johnson is just building her basketball IQ and being in a stronger position to control LSU’s offense rather than take a back seat, she said.

Johnson won’t be returning to the same team next season. The Tigers lost five players to the transfer portal and signed sophomore forward Kate Koval from Notre Dame and senior forward Amiya Joyner from East Carolina. LSU’s 2025 recruiting class has also been widely regarded as the top class ahead of Tennessee’s and Stanford’s. Johnson heaped praise on her former teammates, but she said a change was needed to help the program return to a championship standard. 

Mulkey shared her thoughts on the transfer portal in an interview with WAFB9 Sports in Baton Rouge on Wednesday. 

“I don’t have animosity, I don’t have anger toward any of these players,” Mulkey said of the LSU players who entered the transfer portal. “What I want for them is happiness. Now, do I believe in my heart of hearts that you’re gonna be any happier somewhere else? Maybe if you get more playing time. But as you see, not just at LSU but across the country, starters are transferring, All-Americans are transferring.” 

Mulkey’s right. Some of the biggest names in women’s college basketball entered the portal this year, including former Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles and South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley. Miles announced her decision to transfer to TCU two weeks ago. According to reports, Fulwiley could end up transferring to LSU. 

Johnson and Miles were among a large group of players who chose another year of college over the WNBA next year, as a new, far more lucrative WNBA CBA looms in 2026.

In her return to Baton Rouge, one goal sits above the rest for Johnson: leading LSU back to the NCAA championship. After losing to UCLA in the Elite Eight this spring, Johnson believes Mulkey has the right players to get the program back to the Final Four. But it starts with the tone Johnson sets. 

“It’s going to be me, allowing Coach Mulkey to coach the hell out of me,” Johnson said. “Just so everybody else falls in line. I’m going to have to be the one to take that to show an example, this is the standard here. I’m ready to do that. I wasn’t ready to do that in my previous years. Now, I know what it takes.”