RHS spends time with LSU women’s hoops

It’s one thing to talk about playing with a championship mindset, but there’s nothing like seeing those at the highest level live it out up close.

Ruston High girls basketball got to experience the high standard of winning culture firsthand on a visit to LSU on Monday for a private viewing of women’s basketball practice, featuring personal visits with Kim Mulkey and LSU’s star players – giving the Lady Bearcats a unique trip they won’t forget anytime soon.

RHS head coach LaShanda- Smith Cooper has taken every team she’s had to LSU for a visit since her Northwood- Lena days and is grateful the Tigers have continued to welcome her and her respective teams back year after year.

“I really wanted to give this team an idea of what a championship culture looks like, and, thankfully, coach (Kaylin) Rice was able to work with me and find a good day and time for us to go down there because it’s always been a fun trip.”

Cooper can tell the trip meant a lot to the Lady Bearcats, offering each player the chance to soak in a national championship environment, as well as the daily practice habits instilled under the direction of Mulkey and her staff. It’s exactly what Cooper wanted Ruston to see, to not just experience but take for themselves and apply to the upcoming season.

“My main thing was I wanted to show the girls what a championship program, championship culture looks like,” Cooper said. “ For them to see, oh, coach Mulkey doesn’t just get fiery during games. She’s the same in practice. There’s a standard for winning, and the players respect that and play at that level in practice.”

Cooper specifically wanted her team to focus on how LSU communicated on and off the court, the team’s body language, as well as their ability to retain corrections.

“It was all about the details. For some reason in high school, you don’t hear a lot of kids talk a lot on the court. But they talk off the court no problem. And so, seeing Flau’jae (Johnson) talk and everyone on the court talk and all the coaches talk and be engaged in every play was big for them to see,” Cooper said. “ That’s what I want the girls to take is, ‘Hey, I can be loud and talkative when I’m out here.’ And to see them not pout after a missed shot and just get back on defense, or take hard coaching, that was big too. Those are things we’re still trying to get better at day by day.”

When practice was over, the Lady Bearcats couldn’t contain their excitement to meet the Tigers – including Johnson, Mikaylah Williams, Aneesah Morrow, and more. Williams earned SEC Freshman of the Year last season, while Morrow is the Tigers’ returning leading scorer.

“ It was a roar. Not just yelling. I’m talking like it was a roaring sound,” Cooper said of her team’s excitement. “And they were all spread out around the court, so they were everywhere running around getting photos and asking questions. They were all excited to see Flau’jae and Aneesah and Mikaylah and the whole team and wanted to get a photo with them. And the players were so friendly, so that made it even cooler for them.”

Ruston also toured LSU’s locker room before heading to campus for an official tour of the school. The Lady Bearcats stopped in the student union and visited academic buildings for a full picture of life as a Tiger.

Cooper hopes Ruston can make the trip to LSU an annual experience like it was for her teams at Northwood-Lena. But more importantly, she hopes her team takes valuable notes from the visit to help make the 2024-25 season a success.

“I wanted to provide them the opportunity to have a deeper appreciation for the process and for discipline,” Cooper said. “If going DI was easy, if playing at LSU was easy, everyone would be there. But there’s a standard. And a standard has a price. That’s what I want our team to be about is can we take coaching and help each other and not take it as a negative. If we do those things, the extra details, that will put us on the right track.”