Everything Kim Mulkey said going into the NCAA Tournament

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey met with the media on Thursday afternoon ahead of the Tigers’ game against Rice to begin the NCAA Tournament on Friday at 3 p.m. Here’s everything she said as LSU prepares to look to make another run in the big dance.

Q. Just wanted to ask you about last year Poa. Is she available tomorrow? Do you anticipate her being able to ready to go?

KIM MULKEY: “Yes. She should be available unless has changed overnight. She did practice yesterday. So if you’re out there practicing, I’m assuming you’re cleared. But, honestly, I didn’t even ask. We just went to work. So unless something has happened between yesterday’s practice and today, I assume I’ll see her today, and she’ll be good to go.”

Q. Rice obviously won the tournament four straight games there. Just where do you start with your evaluation of them and where they attack?

KIM MULKEY: “Well, we certainly watched the four games of the tournament. I’m very familiar with Rice’s coaching staff. Two of my former managers at Baylor are assistant coaches for them. So they’re going to know a lot more about my philosophy and things we do probably than I will what they do.

But I’m very proud of them. They had to win the tournament to get in, it looks like. And when you win four games and your back’s against the wall, that means you’re playing pretty good basketball.

And I anticipate, like I do all games, that they will play their best, and we will hopefully play our best. They play majority of man. Seen some 1-3-1 zone trapping in the corners on the baseline.

And I’m going to screw up names, but their point guard and their four player are pretty darn good basketball players. But they just don’t stand out, they’re a very balanced team. They make about six threes a game. And it will be exciting for them. It will be exciting for us.”

Q. And Angel was talking about it, but Flau’jae’s approach this year, obviously compared to last year where it was just a new environment for her, what have you seen from that so far?

KIM MULKEY: “Maturity. It’s kind of hard to realize that the word maturity in being a sophomore go hand in hand with Flau’jae, but it really does. The experience she gained last year, not just playing time but just the environment of the NCAA Tournament. She’s just a lot more poised and mature in her approach.

I think she’s playing her best basketball of the year. Flau’jae is just a joy when you watch her play. She has a joy about her, and you can’t take your eyes off of her.”

Q. Aneesah has talked about part of the reason why she came here was to play in the tournament. So what are you hoping to see from her, and how do you think she can help you make a run?

KIM MULKEY: “Morrow, she just had an unbelievable year. To be a new player, whether you’re a freshman or a transfer, to fit in comfortably, it takes time. And I think that she has fit in comfortably quicker than I thought that she would.

And a lot of that has to do with her energy. He just has a motor. And she starts the game the same way she finishes it. I’m sure she gets tired, but I don’t look on the floor and think I got to get her off the floor, she’s tired.

She’s an undersized post player that can get up with the best of them in that paint area, and yet she could guard you on the perimeter if she needs to.

And this is exactly why she came. She told me she wanted to get to the post season.”

Q. Your philosophy is defensive rebounding, defense and rebounding. Both Angel and Hailey said that in the start of the season, for them, it was all about points, and now they feel like they’re playing their best basketball defensively. Do you agree with that?

KIM MULKEY: “Yes. And I don’t want it — I hope they didn’t come across and sound very selfish. I’ve said all along, we can score the ball, on our worst day, I’ve got that many scorers. But we had to buy in to be a better defensive team. Rebounding was going to be okay because you had Angel back. You knew that was a walking double-double. Then you add Morrow to the mix. We lose Sa’Myah. So then you add Aalyah to the mix.

I just have also thought if we’re going to go very far in the playoffs, we have to get better through the course of the year defensively.

And I think that’s where our most improvement has been, is that nobody likes defense. When you have that many scorers on a team, I doubt any of them had to be the defensive stopper growing up. If we can do it collectively, if we can help each other, take pride in it and get excited about it as much as we do the offensive end, I think you can have a good season and a good run in the playoffs.

And it’s new for them. Maybe not so much Angel as it was — I think you said Hailey. Hailey has to defend at a new position up top as a point guard, and then I ask her to go to the off guard when Poa is in the game. And hold them accountable. I mean, just really have those practices where we don’t pick a basketball.”

Q. Angel mentioned earlier that last year they didn’t have the national championship team, but this year they have the talent and they have the people for it. How do you feel what’s the difference between last year’s team and this year’s team going into the first game of the tournament?

KIM MULKEY: “I think last year nobody — nobody was talking about us getting to a Final Four. I think people were saying just go one step further than you did the year before. Nobody was ever talking about our team being good enough to get to a Final Four.

And I think it just started snowballing. I think when you win the national championship or you get to a Final Four, then expectations, whether it’s fair or not, they think you’re supposed to do it again.

I don’t know if it can be done again. Certainly that’s a goal of ours, and we do have talent to do it. But it takes a lot of things to go right to do it. And you have to be playing your best basketball. You’ve got to stay away from injuries. You’ve got to have just a tiny bit of luck on the way, some play that goes your way.

And we’ll see. I know we’ll play hard. I know that our culture is whatever happens we’re going to go down fighting. That’s just how we are. We just fight for every loose ball. We fight for every rebound. We fight for just the tip-off. We fight for the jump ball.

And if you do that, you can live with whatever happens.”

Q. Mikaylah’s progress over the past couple weeks, getting her back into shape, getting her ready to play, how has that been going?

KIM MULKEY: “She hasn’t missed a beat in practice. She’s been out there every possession. And Mikaylah to me is one of the best mid-range shooters that I’ve ever coached. And she can shoot the three ball. She can take you hard and be strong off the dribble.

But she’s got — she’s got to get back in the flow on the floor during a game. And I thought we gave her enough minutes in the SEC Championship. She some hit buckets in that game. And if you ask Mikaylah, she’ll tell you she needed to do more. And that’s what competitors do.

So this will be her first shot at a playoff game. So hopefully she’ll be excited and have those butterflies and then do what she does, and that’s play basketball.”

Q. Both of the girls that were in here, Angel and Hailey, talking about peaking at the right time, and it’s something that you’ve mentioned over the last couple of weeks. How much do you see that fight and that extra effort in your team now here down the stretch?

KIM MULKEY: “Well, I certainly saw it throughout and through the SEC Championship. Now, we’ve been off about how many days now? So I don’t know really if we’ll be rusty or not. But that’s why I said after the game I wish we could go play quickly because you want to keep that.

So hopefully that will carry over into the playoffs. But we have had a little time in between that run and the next game. So and you’ve got to be careful on the floor, how much you do on the floor, particularly when you’re trying to heal players.

So hopefully we’re still where we were when we played in that championship game.”

Q. You mentioned your team’s talent. I’m curious, if you look back at some of your Baylor teams over the years, what sets this team apart in terms of talent from some of your other talented teams that made a deep run into the tournament?

KIM MULKEY: “Well, you don’t compare teams. That’d be, as I tell you, like comparing your children. What are some qualities that this team has? If you’re thinking about those teams you coached that went to Final Fours and won championships, one, you better have talent. We have the talent.

The second thing that’s very important is experience. Do we have enough experience? I don’t know. When you think of experienced players, the majority of those that get minutes, I can only think of Angel Reese and Flau’jae. Morrow doesn’t have this experience. Hailey had a Final Four experience with Louisville. And then Mikaylah, being a freshman. Poa has that experience. So you have a — I guess a good balance of experience, but you sure would like to have more.

So I think those two things take you through the playoffs. I also think you have to have good guard play. As good as Angel is and as good as Morrow and all those guys, they’re really reliant on guard play. And guards have to get them the ball when they rebound the ball, the guards have to bring it up the floor. So I think you have to have good guard play in order for your team to go far.

Now, what is good guard play? It’s different for each team. Some teams need a lot of scoring from their guards. Some teams just need management, just get the ball where it’s supposed to be.

We can score the ball. So if we’re scoring the ball at the guard spot and those guys inside are scoring the ball and rebounding, it makes it tough for people to guard us.”

Q. The girls also talked about defense, specifically win by outscoring people. How pleased are you to hear that message coming from your players that their defensive intensity is what’s gotten them to this point?

KIM MULKEY: “I think I’ve said all along we can score the ball, but against good defensive teams, you’ve got to be able to defend too. And I think we’ve learned from some of the losses we’ve had this year, there are other teams out there that can play. There’s other teams out there that can defend. And when you meet those teams, you better be able to match that defensive intensity.”

Q. How important is it going to be for your bench in this postseason run?

KIM MULKEY: “Oh. Listen, in the perfect world, you want to play eight or nine players. We lost that. We lost that early in the year.

So what you’re having happen now is you’re pretty much going eight if you play Janae and Poa coming off the bench, and then you’ve got Aalyah.

So two of those coming off the bench and one on the floor are freshmen, true freshmen. And so I know that their nerves will be kind of fresh and exciting, and yet you hope they settle in and help you win a ball game or two.”