Flau’jae Johnson will be rested until at least the start of the 2025 NCAA women’s basketball tournament, as LSU head coach Kim Mulkey revealed that the junior is dealing with “shin inflammation.”
The guard sat out the Tigers’ final regular-season game against Ole Miss on Sunday, and it was only the second game Johnson had missed throughout her entire college career. Johnson was in attendance as the Rebels beat LSU 85-77, but was seen wearing a protective boot on her right foot.
“I know she’s trying to mask the pain she’s in,” Mulkey said before the game on the team’s radio station. “It’s not a stress fracture or anything like that. It’s just rest. We’ll get that inflammation down, and we’ll see the Flau’Jae that we need to see when we start playoffs.”
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Johnson will now miss the SEC Tournament, which begins on March 5, but hopes to return on March 18 when the NCAA Tournament begins. Johnson has enjoyed the best season of her career, and leads the Tigers in scoring through 30 games.
The 21-year-old is averaging 18.9 points per game, and her 46.5 percent shooting is the sixth-best average in the SEC. Johnson only scored six points in her last game, which was a season low, and the LSU staff decided that she needed rest to fully recover.
“I don’t think Flau’Jae’s best basketball has happened in the last couple of weeks,” Mulkey added. “So let’s rest her. Why put her through that, because it’s just not worth it.”
Johnson already boasts a national championship title, after the Tigers beat Caitlin Clark’s Iowa in 2023 to lift the title. That game also sparked the rivalry between Clark and former LSU star Angel Reese, but for Johnson it set a standard which she hopes to replicate this season.
After becoming national champions, the Tigers were eliminated at the Elite Eight stage last season, which isn’t good enough according to Johnson. Ahead of 2025 March Madness, the junior guard said: “Anything less than a Final Four I’m not gonna be happy about because I know what this team is capable of.”
Despite setting the minimum standard, after winning the title in her freshman season, Johnson wants to come out on top. “We’re trying to go all the way, get better every day, we could be so good, we’re right there,” Johnson said.
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“That’s why it’s so cool because it takes so many different components to get where we’re at. But, man, once you get a taste of that national championship, that’s the kind of standard we have here now. We’re not going for nothing less at all.”
Johnson will now focus on getting healthy ahead of the NCAA Tournament, as the Tigers have a much better chance with her out on the court. South Carolina is the reigning champions, but unlike last year, there can’t be a flawless champion.
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