When Oak Grove superstar Caroline Bradley showed up in Baton Rouge in March, LSU fans thought the Tigers had their future locked down. The five-star forward, the No. 1 player in Louisiana, was expected to stay in state. She has visited LSU multiple times, and the Tigers have leaned hard on the hometown pitch. But things have changed since then, and the edge might be slipping away, with some national heavyweights now on her radar.

Kim Mulkey’s Top Target Caroline Bradley Set to Visit Dawn Staley, Cori Close, and Other LSU Rivals

Bradley’s recruitment has officially gone national. The Oak Grove star told Rivals she is lining up unofficial visits to South Carolina, UCLA, Kentucky, and Notre Dame while keeping LSU in the mix. Each program comes with its own pitch.

“I’m definitely relationship-oriented,” Bradley said, per On3. “Play style, honestly, throughout the recruiting process, is going to be really big…Somewhere that my family can get to is going to be important as well.” That’s where coaches like Dawn Staley and Cori Close step in.

Staley appears to have an edge in philosophy. “She believes in a play style of playing through the post and things like that, which is really important to me,” Bradley said. It also helps that Staley comes with a 475-110 record.

At UCLA, Close also made a major impression. “She plays through the post. She believes in a post-play style. She’s just a really, really good human, and they’re a really good staff,” Bradley said. That matters because while Mulkey has recruited her since eighth grade, Bradley is openly drawn to systems that highlight her game.

And no doubt, Bradley’s game is worth spotlighting. She averaged 21.8 points, 15.1 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game in her sophomore season. She led Oak Grove to the Non-Select Division III state championship game, posting 38 points and 22 rebounds in the final. She closed her sophomore year with 1,595 points and 1,146 rebounds in her prep career.

ESPN ranks her No. 5 overall in the 2027 class, and Gatorade named her Louisiana Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Bradley is agile for her size, skilled in the post, and able to stretch the floor. It is no surprise bluebloods are chasing her.

Still, LSU isn’t backing off. Assistant coach Kaylin Rice has been on the recruiting trail, and Mulkey has hosted Bradley repeatedly in Baton Rouge. The Tigers didn’t land a homegrown player in 2025, and Mulkey appears focused on changing that.

The LSU-UCLA tension adds another wrinkle. In March, Close apologized after reposting a Los Angeles Times column branding the Tigers as “basketball’s villains.”

Mulkey blasted the piece as sexist, her players called it racist, and the tension only grew when UCLA eliminated LSU from the NCAA tournament. Now, Close is one of the very coaches Bradley is considering, raising the stakes in one of the most intriguing recruitments in women’s basketball.

Bradley is also set to visit Kentucky. “I think that Coach Brooks is great. What I like most about him is he already knows what he would do when I came there. He has a plan. He’s envisioning me being there, and he has a plan for the kinds of things he wants to do with me there. I think that’s really cool,” she said.

Kenny Brooks knows how to elevate a program. In his first season at Kentucky, he went 23-8 overall and 11-5 in conference play. He arrived in Lexington with a 180-82 record from Virginia Tech.

Notre Dame is also in the mix. “I think they’re one that I kind of want to get up there and see the campus, especially to just kind of get a feel for it,” Bradley said. Coach Niele Ivey has compiled a 117-38 record since taking over in 2020 and led the Irish to a Sweet 16 run last season.

All four programs have their pitch. Staley offers a post-focused system. Close wins praise for her player-first approach. Brooks brings structure and vision. Ivey has a proven record.

Bradley’s game blends power with poise. She owns the glass, thrives through contact and flashes court vision beyond her years. At 6-foot-5, her agility makes her a matchup nightmare. Simply put: whichever program lands her will land a cornerstone.