Even with the 2024 women’s college basketball season getting started tomorrow, LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey hasn’t taken any breaks on the recruiting trail, most recently landing a commitment from five-star forward ZaKiyah Johnson.
LSU women’s basketball lands their third class of 2025 five-star commitment
The future continues to look bright for LSU women’s basketball, and coach Kim Mulkey continues to reload her roster.
With a little over 24 hours remaining until the official start of the 2024 Tiger season, things were already looking good in Baton Rouge, LA. The purple and gold currently rank as the No. 7 team in America, and with two five-star recruits already committed to their recruiting class of 2025, the potential to get even better was certainly there.
As it would turn out, coach Kim Mulkey wasn’t quite done just yet.
Early Sunday afternoon, the LSU women’s basketball program added yet another elite piece to their future roster, as five-star guard/forward ZaKiyah Johnson announced her commitment to the Tigers, making her their third blue chip commitment of the cycle.
Based out of Sacred Heart Academy in Kentucky, the 6-foot tall Johnson currently ranks as the No. 12 player nationally, according to 247Sports, as well as the No. 1 player in-state.
Selecting the purple and gold over home-state Kentucky and Louisville, Mulkey and her coaching staff pulled off a bit of an upset in this recruiting battle, but according to Johnson, a chunk of her decision came from the fact that she was ready for a change of scenery, and Baton Rouge will certainly give it to her.
“I’ve always kind of been an on-the-go type of person,” Johnson told the Courier Journal. “I like to move around a lot, whether it’s with family or my friends. LSU felt a lot like home, but I know it’s far so I can be on my own. I’ll be comfortable, but I’ll also have that challenge of taking the responsibility of being on my own and having to do a lot for myself.”
As a part of the purple and gold, the five-star forward will immediately join a roster stacked with some of the best talent in women’s college basketball, but it very well might not stop her from seeing the floor early and often.
With an ability to score both inside and out, ZaKiyah Johnson has the potential to pair quite nicely with fellow offensive stars like guards Flau’jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams, as well as center Aalyah Del Rosario, just to name a few.
Johnson has officially given the purple and gold their third commitment of the recruiting cycle, joining the likes of fellow five-star recruits Isabella Hines (No. 30) and Divine Bourrage (No. 12), all of which have a recruiting grade of 96 or higher.
LSU women’s basketball will officially take the court for the first time this academic calendar year tomorrow, November 4, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. CT against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels. The game will take place at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, and will be available to watch live on SEC Network+.
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