Flau’jae Johnson is not letting a changed LSU Tigers roster stop her from gunning for a championship again. Now in her junior year, the 20-year-old’s freshman year set her up for success after the Lady Tigers defeated Caitlin Clark’s Iowa in 2023. Last year, they lost in the Elite Eight to the same opponents. Now as Kim Mulkey’s squad aims for another trophy, one WNBA star is in awe of what the rapper did in her first year at Baton Rouge.

Appearing on the latest episode of Johnson’s Best of Both Worlds podcast were the Aces star Sydney Colson and LSU alum Theresa Plaisance. When the Tigers guard asks them how it’s different to win the WNBA and NCAA, Colson reminisces her Texas A&M days. But the second-round pick from 2011 still had praise to shower on Johnson, “It’s huge to especially win – like, I got to win in my senior year. I was on my way out, yeah it’s amazing. Like, it’s cool to end on that note but it’s also pretty spectacular that you got to do it young.”

Colson had helped the Aggies win the 2011 NCAA title. And while Texas has managed to reach the Sweet Sixteen three times since then and the Elite Eight once, they have not managed to capture another trophy yet. But Colson is confident that in Flau’jae Johnson’s case, the Tigers can “recreate what it was that ya’ll did to get there. So that’ll be fun to do it again.”

The 35-year-old also points out how off-court bonding helps on-court performance too. “For me, it was really cool because our team just gelled together so well, just as people. Which I’m sure ya’ll’s team was like that off the court. It doesn’t always take that, for a team to win on the court you don’t have to like everybody, you just have to play well together. But I definitely think it helps when you really mess with each other and then go super hard on the court. It’s just different.”

Johnson, of course, had Angel Reese by her side when the two competed together in the previous two seasons. With Reese now in Chicago and their relationship not quite what it used to be, the LSU junior is still showing up. The last exhibition performance against the Xavier Musketeers proved it as Johnson finished the game with 30 points on 13-19 shooting and 10 rebounds. And yet, it’s not enough for her.

Flau’jae Johnson is “hungrier than ever”

The taste of a championship right in her freshman year, that too with record-breaking attendance numbers, was huge for Flau’jae Johnson. Last year, the Tigers fell a little short, but the Kim Mulkey-led team is ready to take back the trophy this season. And Johnson is leading the charge.

“I ain’t going to lie, we got to win,” Johnson said on the podcast. “It’s just going to be about us putting it together, but I need a chip. I need another chip like not going to lie, I’m hungrier than ever. Just because I really know what it takes and I know what it looks like to go there and what you got to do. Like when you already tasted it before you kind of know the expectation, what it takes, what you need to do and I feel like we got the pieces to make it happen.”

She has also commented on her double-double saying how she did not treat the game as an exhibition matchup. For her, it was setting the pace going into the season and proving that she is here to stay.

It’s not going to be easy given everyone in the NCAA is hungry for that ultimate title. The LSU Tigers dusted the Xavier Musketeers in that exhibition game, with the score reading 114-53, a massive 61-point margin. Maybe that portends good things for the future!