Bella Hines, premier 2025 scoring guard, commits to LSU
LSU has landed its first commitment of the 2025 class on Tuesday afternoon with four-star guard Bella Hines committing to the Tigers. Hines took her official visit to LSU on the weekend of March 22, allowing her to be in attendance for LSU’s first round game against Rice in the NCAA Tournament.
On the visit, Hines was able to see the PMAC at full capacity, meet the team, and even hit the griddy with head coach Kim Mulkey.
Hines is a 5-foot-9 guard from Eldorado High School in New Mexico and has been a top priority for LSU’s staff while building the 2025 class early on. Ranked as the No. 31 player in the country, Hines is one of the top scorers in the class and put that on full display as a junior, averaging 32.5 points.
On March 17, Hines released her top 10, including LSU, Iowa, Baylor, Arizona, Florida State, Texas Tech, NC State, West Virginia, TCU, and Kansas State.
Hines’ mixtape compilation is filled with on-the-move jumpers, a slick handle, great touch around the basket, and plenty of 3-pointers. Hines made 138 3-pointers and 208 free throws in her junior season and broke the record for most career points in Eldorado history. Hines is also AAU teammates with Aaliyah Chavez, the No. 1 recruit in the country out of Lubbock, Texas.
LSU continues to try to stockpile talent for the future and the 2025 class has become a priority with the Tigers making inroads on several top 50 players in the country. After a national title and now another deep NCAA Tournament run, all eyes are on Kim Mulkey’s program.
LSU has one high school signee in the 2024 class in Jada Richard from Lafayette Christian Academy, with one transfer portal addition sealed in Jersey Wolfenbarger from Arkansas. LSU returns a majority of their core next year with Flau’Jae Johnson, Mikaylah Williams, and Aneesah Morrow, but the pursuit of sustaining elite seasons comes in recruiting and the portal and Mulkey is well aware of that.
With LSU growing into one of the dominant programs in the sport, the recruiting trail is always fascinating to watch.
“In this business, you’re going to win some of those battles and you’re going to lose some,” Kim Mylkey said in February. “The crazy thing is you never know why a recruit chooses a school. Sometimes it’s close to home, sometimes it’s the players on the team, sometimes it’s being able to play quickly. Now, after being here for three years, it’s good to be a part of the conversation. Now, I don’t like just being in the top five. I don’t want to chase a wild goose, I want a legit shot at you. I think as we grow as a staff, I don’t care about numbers in front of kids’ names. There are so many overrated kids, then you watch those that don’t have a number in front of their names and they have great careers. I’m more into doing our homework, seeing who we like and let’s go after them and quickly eliminate those we don’t have a shot at
