MiLaysia Fulwiley: Certified Bench Warmer God, Future Starting PG… Once She Finds Her Lung Capacity
BATON ROUGE, LA — MiLaysia Fulwiley is officially the college basketball equivalent of a hyper-efficient espresso shot: short, intense, and perfect for when you need an immediate jolt of brilliance. But if you try to make her a whole pot of coffee? She starts looking like she just ran a marathon in full football pads.
The LSU transfer, fresh off a title run at South Carolina, has been named to the prestigious Nancy Lieberman Award Preseason Watchlist. This means she is one of the top 20 point guards in the country, despite the fact that she’s currently operating with the endurance of a disposable camera battery.
Fulwiley is a walking highlight reel for about 15 minutes of game time. She’s got the speed of a jet ski, the quickness of a mosquito, and the kind of unbelievable hand-eye coordination that Coach Kim Mulkey says God personally blessed her with. (Kim Mulkey, by the way, talks about the basketball gods like they are her next-door neighbors who keep borrowing her hedge clippers.)
But then, the clock keeps running. And this is where the Sixth Woman of the Year dynamic really kicks in.
The Mid-Game Meltdown (Metaphorically Speaking)
When Fulwiley is asked to be the full-time point guard, her game starts to look like a phone running on 3% battery:
Vision Flaws: She loses the ability to see her teammates. Her brain, clearly low on glucose, defaults to the only open player she can spot: the rim.
Sloppy Shots: Those beautiful, improvised plays that make ESPN drool? They turn into frantic, contested layups that ricochet off the backboard like a rogue drone.
The Deep Shot of Desperation: Mulkey mentioned that Fulwiley took a deep shot in the exhibition and had to be reminded to “understand circumstances.” That’s coach-speak for: “Lay, if the game was tied, that shot would have made me spontaneously combust.” This is the classic, tired player move—why run all the way to the rim when you can just chuck it from half-court and pray for a miracle? Efficiency!
Mulkey, wearing her signature bedazzled jacket, is taking a "slow cook" approach. She didn't even start Fulwiley in their 146-48 exhibition win (yes, 146-48, they didn't just win, they hosted a scoring convention).
Mulkey’s Master Plan: The Treadmill of Truth
The legendary coach knows exactly what she has: a Lamborghini engine in a Smart Car chassis. The talent is undeniable, but the tank is small.
“Learning point guard is probably a little challenging right now,” Mulkey said, adding the brilliant, subtle dig that Fulwiley "has always been the recipient of the pass on the wing." Translation: You were an assassin, MiLaysia, now I need you to be the tactical director, which requires you to actually think before you fly.
The biggest hurdle? Stamina. Mulkey wants her to "extend her minutes" and put on defensive pressure, which is exactly why Fulwiley is working so hard she admitted: “I’ve never worked this hard in my life.”
She transferred from a national powerhouse where she won a title to be a star starter, only to find that her path to the first unit is paved with wind sprints, defensive drills, and the constant, piercing gaze of Coach Mulkey reminding her not to shoot ill-advised 30-footers when she’s fatigued.
Look, this is good news. Fulwiley is a star. But for now, if LSU needs an unstoppable, game-changing 10 minutes, MiLaysia is your MVP. If they need 35 minutes of discipline, she’s going to look like a transfer student who wandered onto the court trying to find the nearest protein bar.
She’s being asked to evolve from a spectacular Sixth Woman to a reliable, two-way point guard. The talent is there; now she just needs to hire a personal cardio coach, maybe a deep-sea diver, anyone who can help her expand that lung capacity. Because until then, she's the most thrilling thing to come off the bench since the inventor of the Gatorade towel.
