Everything Kim Mulkey said before LSU's trip to Tennessee

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey will lead her No. 6 Tigers on the road to take on No. 16 Tennessee on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. CT in a heavyweight matchup in women’s college basketball. Mulkey met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the game, her team’s growth, Tennessee’s unique style and more.

Here is everything she said on Tuesday ahead of the top-20 matchup.

Initial thoughts on Tennessee…

“Let’s talk about Tennessee. First of all, I’m gonna be listening to ‘Good Ol Rocky Top. Woo!’ 
I like that song. Tennessee is very good. They have a ton of new players, about ten transfers and the style of play is like nothing I’ve ever seen. They score a lot of points and they make you play fast with their press and it’s gonna be quite a challenge to keep them from scoring in the 90s. It seems to be their magic number. We score a lot of points, but I have to stress defense at some point. We have to try to stop them from score as much as they do. I didn’t know this until a few minutes ago that we lead SEC in field goal percentage defense. Did y’all know that? Also, I didn’t know that Tennessee was last in field goal percentage defense. In football, you would say it’s our defense against their offense, right? 
But we don’t do that in basketball. You gotta play both ends.”

Can you pull something from other teams y’all have played in preparation?

“I can’t take much because they substitute four to five at a time to start the game. Now, I don’t see them substituting like that in the fourth quarter, but throughout the game, coach Caldwell plays a lot of players and it doesn’t matter who you are and how good you’re playing. I mean, she has her system in place and she’s won with that system. She’s not gonna change and why would she? She’s winning.”

Do you see some Alexis Morris in Kailyn Gilbert…

“Yes, she has that chip on her shoulder that she wants to prove to a lot of naysayers that she’s not what they say she was and that she is an outstanding player. She can score with the best guarding her and so I could see that a little.
I think it’s probably from the scoring, the speed and the quickness, I think Alexis’, on-ball defense, was a little bit more advanced than Gilbert is right now and we work really hard with Gilbert on taking care of the ball. Now she’s not a point guard like Alexis, but she could go out there and I could run some quick hitters for her. She’s just got a knack for scoring the basketball.”

Charlie Creme in his latest Bracketology called your team in enigma. Do you think that’s fair?

“I think so, that’s fair. I’m an enigma.
I’ve been called that too. I don’t let people get too close and I guess it’s a good thing, right? It’s it’s not a bad thing. I’d like to also say that I think we’re a a program that’s built a solid foundation in a short period of time. 
And you can still be an enigma and be coaching for many years, so it’s fair. We’ve been called worse, right? I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as we’re just — we puzzle people. We were an enigma when we won the championship. So, that’s good.”

What is the key for LSU against Tennessee’s quickness and pressure?

“You can’t turn the ball over against Tennessee.
Now, I say that in Oklahoma turned it over 31 times and won. You can not turn the ball over against their press. It’s more of a run and jump press with a lot of length coming at you and that quickness that you just mentioned. You can’t turn the ball over and you have to really, really work hard to keep them off the offensive boards. That Tennessee vs. Oklahoma game, obviously, I’ve looked at it — how do you win turning the ball over 31 times? Well, there were a lot of points in the paint and layups. Tennessee gets a lot of stuff in the paint as well, but they also average 12 threes a game. That’s not just throwing it to them and they shoot, that’s stopping them from getting in the paint to create those threes. So, they are really good. They’re really athletic and they play a lot of players and we’re gonna have to focus and just try our best to defend that.”

On LSU’s defense since coming back from Christmas break…

“I have to be careful. I don’t know that any coach that’s Type A – intensity, passion is ever just happy, like you’re gonna always look for something to motivate them, to keep them honest, to keep them hungry. And so that’s what I try to do, and then I get these people that put these stats in front of me that say well, coach you lead the league and field goal percentage defense. So I have to be a realist and go, am I being fair? And I think it’s the details. It’s the details of the little things that we need to get better at if we want to be one of the teams talked about at the end of the season to get a get to host. I see all the stats, understand that, but it’s just the little things that I think we can do better.”

On Jersey Wolfenbarger’s development at LSU…

Well, Jersey set out an entire year, and so I had to be fair with her, and Sa’Mayah also sat out a year with her knee surgery, so I have to be fair to them and I have to get them back into the basketball mindset that it’s not going to be easy starting out. Talking about Jersey, you’re learning a new system, learn how we do things defensively, and now she’s back to being an inside presence where she hadn’t been for a while. So what do you have to do? You gotta get her stronger. You gotta make her bump and be able to to take kids to the rim and score, go up and block that shot. I think she has improved tremendously. It may not show sometimes, but I know what we had to work with when she got here and I know where we are today. She has the size to alter shots. She really has great footwork for a big girl. She can defend as good on the perimeter when they take her off the drive as any post that we have. She’s just progressed a lot, but we’re not there yet. I don’t know if it’ll happen for her today, tomorrow, next year, or when she keeps getting stronger in the weight room, but she has some skills of a guard in that tall body too.”

On her team’s point guard situation…

“We have, and this has maybe been overlooked because of my focus on point guard play and the five spot, but we have the best depth of guard play that I’ve had since I’ve been here. I mean, we’ve got six to seven players that can go and you may see that Thursday. I may have to go ahead and just say get out there, we’re tired, we got we got to keep subbing when they sub. I’m pleased with that.
I’ve always believed in sports, you gotta have a quarterback, and some coaches have been very successful within a two quarterback system. because they can throw different things at you through the course of a game. Basically, that’s what we’ve been doing is a two quarterback system. I would love to just have that one quarterback, but we’re not at that point now where that’s the way it is. So, I’m pleased in that it’s worked for us. We’re what are we? 17-0? It’s worked for us, but it’s it makes me work harder because we have to know who to put in the game, when they need to be in the game for defensive purposes, what I need to run for a quick hitter, you know, who needs to be in the game with that point guard, so it’s it’s a lot a lot more headaches for me because no one has just separated.”

On what she knows about Kim Caldwell…

“I don’t know her personally. I’ve never had a conversation with her, so I’m gonna answer this from a distance. Of course I played for Pat. It’s like playing for Barmore at Tech, nobody wants to follow in the footsteps of those people. They don’t, but what has been good for her is she’s had two coaches before her. 
So she’s not really following in the footsteps of Pat Summit. Will that aura always be there? Sure, but be who you are. What she does is totally different than what Pat did, but [her system] is very successful, it’s brought crowds to the game, it’s put them in the top 25. She does what she believes in and it’s working. I know she’s any moment now I was told should have a baby, so I hope she has it right there in the middle of the game. I mean, I hope that game gets so exciting. I’ll go down there and help deliver it. Pat Summit had quite a story when when she had her baby. She had to land that plane out of a recruiting trip. If Kim goes into labor during our game, listen, I have lots of experience, I have two, so come find me and I’ll I’ll be there and hold your hand with your husband and whoever else you’ll let in the room.”