Six months ago, Oak Grove’s Caroline Bradley celebrated her public commitment to LSU with 300 pounds of crawfish and 300 of her closest friends.
Bradley celebrated signing day Wednesday with a more intimate dinner at her aunt’s home, surrounded by about 75 family members.
“Being from Louisiana you know that food is the No. 1 priority,” Bradley said.
The 6-foot-6 Bradley, the nation’s top-rated center, put the finishing touches on a recruiting process that was part of a worldwide basketball journey that grew in stature with every year she spent at Oak Grove High and playing AAU.
“What a journey it’s been so far,” Bradley said. “It’s just been incredible. I’m super grateful. I was telling my mom the other day, it’s an overwhelming sense of gratitude. For the town, for the people that have helped raise me that was important to me and helped develop me. It’s been a long journey. I was super lucky could say I knew where I wanted to go early.”
LSU announced the signing of Bradley, a five-star recruit and ESPN’s No. 3 overall player, as a centerpiece in a recruiting class that’s just starting to take shape.
“It means a lot when Louisiana’s best chooses to stay home and wear the purple and gold,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said in a university release. “We’ve been recruiting Caroline since my first year at LSU, and I’m thrilled that she’s officially a Tiger. Her talent speaks for itself. She’s the best high school post player in the country, and she’ll make a tremendous impact in our frontcourt and program throughout her time in Baton Rouge.”
Bradley has started for Oak Grove since the seventh grade and has already put up impressive career numbers. She’s already scored 2,433 points, grabbed 1,690 rebounds and blocked 343 shots. And she still has her entire senior season ahead of her.
Bradley, who owns a career field goal percentage of 58%, has a career-high of 50 points despite drawing plenty of attention from the opposition.
She’s the state’s two-time Gatorade Player of the Year, two-time recipient of the LSWA’s Miss Basketball award and two-time winner of the Class 2A Player of the Year award.
“I want to enjoy the senior year, enjoying the people around,” she said. “Just a great group of people that I’ve been raised with and have known my whole life. Just soaking it all in and being where my feet are. Today (Wednesday), I looked at my journey and where I’ve been so far. I’ve been across the world playing basketball, knowing that originated in this small town is so rich, so much built on tradition and culture.”
All LSU … and it wasn’t close
Some of the nation’s top-ranked and revered basketball programs realized they were battling uphill to land Bradley.
Mulkey, a native of Tickfaw who starred at Louisiana Tech, has developed a penchant for recruiting in her home state and targeted Bradley six years ago when she arrived in Baton Rouge.
Bradley’s father, Josh, played tight end at Louisiana Tech when Mulkey was an assistant at her alma mater.
Caroline grew up with a strong sense of family and thrived in her tight-knit community of 1,331 in rural north Louisiana.
When it came time to build relationships and chart a path for the future, Caroline was extremely comfortable in her Louisiana roots, thus providing an obstacle for outside programs to conquer.
“I think from Day 1 people knew their biggest competition was going to be LSU,” Bradley said. “Just being an in-state kid, knowing the type of kid that I am and the type of loyalty that I have. Just how proud I am to be from Louisiana. I think everybody knew that was going to be a challenge.”
Bradley was cordial and entertained scholarship offers from some of the nation’s blue blood programs but made only one official visit.
That was to LSU.
“Talking to some of these girls I played with this summer, and they were taking six, seven official visits,” she said. “I took one and I was exhausted and I committed. It’s been a fantastic journey.”
Bradley, a two-time gold medalist with USA Basketball, announced a list of finalists that included Alabama, Duke, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
“I was a big relationship-oriented person,” she said. “I built a lot of good relationships with a lot of good people that I still look up to. It’s a bit of tricky situation. You’ll face some (of those coaches) throughout my next couple of years. That’s mutual respect.
“They knew through recruiting me that was the type of kid that I was,” she said. “Once I said I was committed there weren’t any ifs, ands or buts about it. That’s where I was going. I couldn’t be happier with the decision that I made. I’m excited to wear those letters across my chest for the next four years.”
Small-town girl, big-time talent
Bradley first committed to Mulkey on Feb. 14 and shared the news with her community on April 6 with a setting that rivaled most college football tailgates.
She announced her intentions to sign with LSU, posed for pictures, peeled crawfish and even took a congratulatory phone call from Gov. Jeff Landry.
“In my mind, I essentially signed,” she said. “There is no big period where I felt so much different. In my head, this is always what I’ve always done since I’ve committed.”
Bradley produced 24 double-doubles last season, averaging 27 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.4 blocks, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals for coach Lee Johnson’s team.
For the second straight year she made the U.S. team that competed in the FIBA AmeriCup and was a starter before a shoulder injury slowed her down.
Bradley suffered a partially torn rotator cuff and missed two games during the tournament but rehabbed well enough to return to action and averaged six points and nine rebounds to win a second gold medal.
“It was after the second game with Australia that I noticed a weakness and the next morning it really kind of hit me,” said Bradley, who had gotten pulled from behind on a rebound attempt. “I had worked my way into the starting five, and it was very limited minutes after that.
“I had to take some time off, worked hard to rehab it,” Bradley said. “There was some swelling, (a lack) range of motion, a weakness. I had a brace and played.”
Chance of a lifetime
Seimone Augustus and Mikaylah Williams helped make LSU an attractive destination for Bradley. Both Louisiana natives chose to play for the Lady Tigers and found tremendous success. Augustus, of Capitol High, was an All-American at LSU, a first-round WNBA pick of the Minnesota Lynx who went on to win Olympic gold medals for the United States.
Williams, a graduate of Parkway High in Bossier City, is a two-time All-SEC performer and an honorable mention All-American projected as a first-round WNBA selection in 2027.
“They are two Louisiana kids able to make a tremendous impact and take advantage of a very unique opportunity they had,” Bradley said. “It’s just incredible to see. They give you so much encouragement.
“I’m going to be walking a very similar path to the one they walked, a Louisiana kid representing the flagship school in the state,” Bradley said. “Just looking up to them, and just picking their brain, asking them questions, they’re people that I can talk to and go to. It’s going to be really huge for me.”
One goal left to achieve
Oak Grove has become a statewide force with Bradley but is still in search of an elusive state title — the first for the school since 1959.
The Lady Tigers played for the state crown in 2024, falling to Oakdale 48-43, and have also appeared in a pair of semifinals and a quarterfinal.
“What better way to close a chapter than with a state championship,” she said.
Bradley’s morning began at 8 a.m. Wednesday with an assembly in the school’s gym that was full of decorations for the big moment.
She officially signed her scholarship papers to the applause of her classmates and onlookers. She gave a speech and later took pictures to capture the moment.
“I was able to express my gratitude to everybody,” she said. “It was more about telling everybody thank you, and more about the community than it was about me and LSU. It was a tribute to Oak Grove, the school.”
