BREAKING NEWS: Star Flau’jae Johnson secretly bought back his family’s childhood home to fulfill her MOTHER’S DREAM

BREAKING NEWS: Star Flau’jae Johnson secretly bought back his family’s childhood home to fulfill her MOTHER’S DREAM — she invested $2.9 million to transform the house into a homeless shelter in Georgia, U.S.

Details in comment

Name, image and likeness (NIL) deals have drastically changed the college sports landscape, and it has seemingly led to more players entering the transfer portal each year.

This year, LSU has lost some key players from its men’s and women’s basketball teams to the transfer portal. While some may take it as an insult when a key player decides to leave a program, it is simply the nature of the beast now.

Kim Mulkey, the head coach of LSU women’s basketball, seems to have an even-keeled stance toward players choosing to enter the portal.

“I don’t have animosity,” she said. “I don’t have anger towards any of these players. What I want for them is happiness.”

On Tuesday, LSU guard Mjracle Sheppard announced her decision to enter the transfer portal, one year after joining the Tigers from Mississippi State. After recovering from a foot injury in October, Sheppard became a contributor off the bench, scoring 3.9 points a game in 30 games. She joined former Tigers Sa’Myah Smith, Last-Tear Poa, Aalyah Del Rosario and Jersey Wolfenbarger in the transfer portal.

Mulkey has been at the helm of the Tigers for four seasons now. During that time, they reached the NCAA Tournament in 2023, where they won it all. Mulkey previously guided Baylor to national titles in 2005, 2012 and 2019.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey. James Snook-Imagn Images

One of the prominent players she coached while at Baylor was Brittney Griner, a two-time AP Player of the Year who has gone on to become one of the WNBA’s biggest stars over the past decade or so.

This past season, LSU made it to the Elite Eight for the third straight year and was led by forward Aneesah Morrow, who has since been drafted by the Connecticut Sun. But it ran into UCLA in the Elite Eight round and lost 72-65 as Morrow shot just 7-of-19 from the field.

Connecticut Huskies forward Alex Karaban (11) and forward Liam McNeeley (30)