BREAKING: LSU starting PG Jada Richard plans to enter Transfer Portal

In surprising news for Kim Mulkey’s roster, LSU starting point guard Jada Richard plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal.

The Lafayette (La.) had a breakout 2025-26 season as the team’s starting point guard for 34 of the program’s 35 games, averaging 9.5 points and 3.3 assists per game. In 34 games, Richard played an average of 26 minutes per game.

It’s the second unexpected announcement from an LSU player and the NCAA Transfer Portal this week.

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said the only players expected to transfer were Divine Bourrage and Kailyn Gilbert. Gilbert had not been with the team for much of the season, and Bourrage signed with Illinois on Thursday.

“You cannot understand the value of having all of them come back,” Mulkey told Doucet. “That’s how you build it. That’s how you get over that hump of an Elite Eight. When you look at those that are coming back — freshman, freshman, sophomore, junior sophomore — and look how much they did this year.

“And so, man, if they come back, they stay together, they play together. That’s how you build it. That’s the way it’s supposed to be done, so I am blessed that all of those great players are coming back.”

Now, two more players – a starter and a key bench player who could have competed for a starting spot – are gone from the roster.

LSU freshman standout Bella Hines surprised Tigers fans when she announced her decision to enter the transfer portal, her agent Daveed Cohen of Young Money APAA Sports told On3.

The 5-10 combo guard out of Albuquerque averaged 4.2 points per game this season with the Tigers, though she saw an uptick in playing time – and impact on the court – in the latter part of the 2025-26 season.

Hines was ranked as the No. 24 recruit in the nation out of high school and was named Player of the Year in New Mexico for two consecutive years.

While playing as a freshman at LSU this past season, Hines appeared in 33 games, closing out the season averaging 4.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.

Hines averaged 13 minutes per game off the bench, with her most minutes played coming in the NCAA Tournament game against Jacksonville when she was on the court for more than 25 minutes. Her most notable stat from her lone season at LSU: Hines led LSU’s team with 28 charges taken.

While LSU loses one of the program’s most accomplished and celebrated players in senior Flau’jae Johnson, the highest-scoring offense in the country had two other players who averaged at least 14 points per game in Mikaylah Williams and Milaysia Fulwiley.

Both have one more year of eligibility remaining.

While Richard and Hines are planning to transfer, LSU returns another starter at guard/forward in ZaKiyah Johnson as well as the team’s top post player in Kate Koval. There’s also a breakout star in true freshman Grace Knox still on roster.

Toss in a former Top 100 prospect in Maryland’s Meghan Yarnevich, who appeared in 20 games as a true freshman this past season, and a McDonald’s All-American in the program’s lone high school signee Lola Lampley, and the future still appears bright for an LSU program that won a National Championship in 2023 and have since made back-to-back Elite 8 appearances before this season’s early exit in the Sweet 16.

Mulkey shed light on what LSU is looking to add from the portal, circling “two or three more players” as the finishing touches on top of the roster already in place.

LSU assistant Bob Starkey said the staff’s hope is to add one to two post players and depth at the point guard position.

The NCAA Transfer Portal window, which opened on Nov. 7, is a 14-day stretch as the lone portal window of the basketball offseason.