Kim Mulkey expresses frustration with LSU after NCAA Tournament win: 'I'm trying to keep my composure'

LSU walked away with a win over Rice in its opening round matchup of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, but head coach Kim Mulkey wasn’t smiling. After the game, Mulkey ranted about her team’s performance.

“That’s not the same team that LSU put on the floor in the championship of the SEC tournament,” Mulkey said. “We don’t have much time but that was a bad performance today, and I thought it was a lot of selfish play today. It starts with me getting them ready.”

The matchup was too close for comfort for No. 3 seed LSU. The Tigers ultimately pulled out a 70-60 triumph but oddsmakers initially expected the game to be a blowout. Turnovers were a thorn in LSU’s side in the nail-biting contest.

The Tigers committed a season-high 24 turnovers against Rice. SEC Player of the Year Angel Reese recorded six turnovers alone. Mulkey knows her team can’t afford to allow its ball control issues to fester.

“Your goal is to survive and advance, and we did do that with an ugly performance today,” Mulkey said. “You can’t win in sports turning the ball over like we did. You can shoot bad. You can have off nights from the foul line. But you can’t win turning the ball over, and we were turning the ball over like we’d never seen one before.

“I think some of it is maybe [because] we’ve been off 10 days. Some of it is selfishness. Some of it is maybe they just thought they were going to show up today and win. I don’t have the right answer. I can give you lots of answers, but we better fix it before we play Middle Tennessee.”

After upsetting No. 6 seed Louisville, Middle Tennessee will be waiting for LSU in the Round of 32. Before the two teams face off, Mulkey plans to get her team in check.

“I would probably call out a lot of them if we were going in that locker room to look at film right now,” Mulkey said. “It was just a performance that is not indicative of what it has been as of late, so I’m gonna try to keep my composure as a coach. Don’t blow it out of proportion. It’s the NCAA playoffs. Tomorrow’s a new day and the next game is a new game. We all have bad games.

“I go back to the Elite Eight game against Miami last year. I think it was 50-42. it was some ugly basketball. This was some ugly basketball today, and we went on to win the national championship [last year], so maybe they got it out of their system.”