Kim Mulkey defends her team, rips LA Times story: ‘How dare people attack kids like that’

Kim Mulkey addressed articles from two major publications after LSU defeated UCLA to advance to the Elite Eight on Sunday. The Tigers coach was the subject of a Washington Post story that she deemed a “hit piece” this past week, but she wasn’t all that interested in talking about it postgame.

Instead, Mulkey turned her attention to an article from the Los Angeles Times that painted the Tigers as the “villains” of women’s college basketball. She called out the language used in the article for being “sexist” as it referred to LSU players as “dirty debutantes” and UCLA players as “milk and cookies.”

Mulkey delivered a passionate statement against the article, standing up for her players.

“How many of you in here are mothers? How many of you in here are grandmothers?” she began. “Damn, I’m the only one. I hope this kind of answers your question. These young ladies — I saw an article. I didn’t see it, someone sent it to me. It was a commentary from the LA Times. You can criticize coaches all you want. That’s our business. You can come at us and say you’re the worst coach in America. I hate you. I hate everything about you. We expect that. It comes with the territory. But the one thing I’m not gonna let you do, I’m not gonna let you attack young people. There were some things in this commentary that you should be offended by as women. It was so sexist and they don’t even know it.

“It was good vs. evil in that game today. Evil? He called us dirty debutantes. Take your phone out right now and google dirty debutantes and tell me what it says. Dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me? I’m not gonna let you talk about 18-21 year old kids in that tone. It was even sexist for this reporter to say UCLA was milk and cookies. You women sit there and keep your mouth shut if you want. I’m in the last third of my career, but I’m not gonna let sexism continue. If you don’t think that’s sexism then you’re in denial. How dare people attack kids like that.”

People have been quick to criticize LSU after it won the national championship in 2023. Star Angel Reese has gotten some flack for her in-game celebrations, including pointing to her ring finger after the Tigers defeated Iowa and Caitlin Clark for the title.

Still, to Kim Mulkey’s point, none of that justifies the over-the-top language used in the article. She understands that criticism is a part of what comes with being successful, but at some point a line has to be drawn.

The article also referred to UCLA as “the team that wants to grow women’s basketball” and LSU as “the one seemingly hellbent on dividing it.” Mulkey also took exception to that, citing the large crowd the Tigers have draw this season.

“You don’t have to like the way we play,” she said. “You don’t have to like the way we trash talk. You don’t have to like any of that. We’re good with that. But I can’t sit up here as a mother and a grandmother and a leader of young people and allow somebody to say that. …Think about what I’m saying because, guys, that’s wrong. I don’t even know what dirty debutantes are. But I know when I googled it I (gasped). Growing the game was a part of it. How many of you have been to Baton Rouge, Louisiana? How many of you have been to an SEC game when we played on the road? You wanna talk about growing the game? Go see our crowds. I don’t get that. I’m sorry.

“I come from a different generation. But I know sexism when I see it and I read it. That was awful. So I hope I’ve answered your question. We just play hard. We play competitive. It doesn’t matter if it’s my son out there. It doesn’t matter if it was anybody’s brothers out there. We’re out there to kick your rear end and that’s how they play. It’s how I was taught by the greatest in this business. Look at the people I played for. They’re Hall of Famers, legendary coaches. They probably couldn’t coach in this generation, but that’s who I learned from.”

With the victory, LSU moves on to face Iowa in a rematch of the 2023 national championship. Kim Mulkey and the Tigers will aim to put the outside noise created by these articles behind them as they aim to take down the Hawkeyes for the second straight year.