BATON ROUGE — Minutes following ZaKiyah Johnson's career night in LSU women's basketball's big season-opening win over Southeastern Louisiana on Monday, Nov. 2, the sophomore uttered words that made her coach revert back to her playing days.

"Wherever coach Mulkey wants me, I'm going to go," Johnson said.

In No. 8 LSU's 129-35 win over the Lions, Johnson recorded a career-high 33 points and 13 rebounds, which was one shy of tying her career best in rebounds.

Mulkey didn't recruit Johnson out of high school to be a post player but she played down there during her freshman season last year because LSU was thin in the post. The plan was to move Johnson back out to the perimeter for his sophomore campaign but again, numbers are thin in the paint for the Tigers and Johnson is needed to play mostly down low.

She's taken it all in stride because for her, it's always been about the team.

"That speaks volumes on Z. 'Z, I recruited you to be a perimeter player but I need you inside right now.' And she ends up being All-SEC," Mulkey said. "Z is probably the best conditioned player I have. She never gets tired. She's always in the front of the drill, she's in the front of the conditioning.

"I am not surprised at all about what she did tonight and there'll be many more of those."

Johnson's teammates also were not surprised by her tenacity and willingness to attack the offensive glass and be a major presence for the team.

"She's relentless," senior guard Mikaylah Williams said of Johnson. "I think y'all saw glimpses of it last year but like she said, knowledge is power. She's applying that for this and she knows what she needs to do for our team to be even better. She's doing that starting from Game 1."

During her first season, Johnson took her lumps. There were games in which she didn't score. The last time she was on the court, she played just six minutes and did not score in LSU's Sweet 16 loss to Duke in the NCAA Tournament.

Beating Southeastern Louisiana isn't redemption but Johnson says she's far more knowledgeable and that sets her up for a better year.

"Knowledge is power," Johnson said. "I think I've done a great job of sitting down and watching myself. The things I need to work on, I work on. I've gotten better at my shot but I'm continuing to work on it. Just being relentless.

"My team really encouraged me to go all over the place and it's the tone that I set on the floor."