GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
A national championship and two straight Elite Eights over the last three seasons, but LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey keeps losing players.
Jersey Wolfenbarger, a 6-foot-5 forward, has decided one year at LSU is enough as she has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal as of Friday. She follows starting 6-2 sophomore forward Sa’Myah Smith (6.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, team-high 51 blocks) and backup 6-6 sophomore center Aalyah Del Rosario (2.0 points, 2.0 rebounds) to enter the portal recently.
But Wolfenbarger was also a backup last season, starting just nine times out of 37 games and averaging only 4.6 points and 3.4 rebounds a game. Hence, the oft-used nickname of the no-sit-out-a-season portal that began in 2021 – the NCAA Backup Portal. Wolfenbarger just transferred to LSU after sitting out the 2023-24 season following a reserve role at Arkansas in 2022-23 in which she averaged 3.9 points and 3.3 rebounds in 35 games with three starts.
Her best season was her freshman year at Arkansas in 2021-22 when she scored 7.5 points a game with 4.3 rebounds through 23 starts in 30 games.
KIM MULKEY SNARES KATE KOVAL OF NOTRE DAME FROM PORTAL
Mulkey, a premium recruiter for decades, also keeps adding players. Wolfenbarger may have decided to enter the portal after Mulkey just added 6-5 forward Kate Koval of Notre Dame through the portal this week. Koval averaged 5.3 points and 4.7 rebounds with a team-high 55 blocked shots as a freshman last season for the Irish.
Mulkey also has high school signee 6-2 forward Grace Knox, a top 10 prospect, coming in for next season.
“It’s just free agency, and you never know,” Mulkey, 62, said early this month on 104.5 FM radio in Baton Rouge shortly after losing to UCLA with the Final Four on the line. “This is not what it’s supposed to be like (according to her generation of coaches). Honestly, why do I keep doing this?”
Mulkey, who has won four national championships with three at Baylor and one at LSU in the 2022-23 season, does make more than $3 million a year.
“Money, yes, it’s great,” she said. “But I never am motivated by money.”
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