Kim Mulkey embraces Texas, Oklahoma in new-look SEC
The SEC welcomed Texas and Oklahoma in every sport, but there are few sports where the two newcomers have as much impact as they will in women’s basketball this season.
Texas is the No. 4 ranked team in the preseason AP poll, while Oklahoma is ranked No. 10, joining No. 1 South Carolina, No. 7 LSU, No. 20 Ole Miss, and No. 24 Alabama, making for six top 25 teams entering the year.
Their arrival gives the conference newfound validity after years where the SEC was considered top-heavy with the last three national champions in the Gamecocks and Tigers. For LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, these opponents aren’t new to her. The Hall-of-Fame coach spent the first two decades of her career in the Big 12 facing the Longhorns and Sooners every year, but now gets to face them as part of the SEC.
“Basketball is basketball,” Mulkey said. “Vic was in the SEC, so it’s not foreign to him. All they need to know is they have outstanding teams and they’re as good as anybody in the SEC and as good as anybody in the country. We welcome them because it brings more popularity and better games to the SEC. Me personally, leaving the Big 12, I thought I’d never have to go to Austin, Texas or Norman, Oklahoma again, but I have to.
“Adding Texas and Oklahoma and how good they are only makes us better and it brings a lot more attention to our league.”
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Through three years in Baton Rouge, Kim Mulkey has amassed a 41-7 record in SEC play, finishing second to South Carolina all three years in the conference standings. Of course, the 2023 season was capped with a national championship, while last year ended in the Elite Eight, but the talent at the top of the conference was never the question, it was the depth. Now, not only does Texas and Oklahoma help give the conference four of the top ten teams in the nation, but teams like Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Auburn, and Tennessee create a quality depth of teams that could reach the NCAA Tournament.
Mulkey’s fourth year at LSU
For Kim, the task now becomes getting her team ready for the schedule ahead. After taking four transfers and a freshman to reload after last season, Mulkey has been steadily building towards another strong season, but expectations are raised after a shaky 2024 campaign.
Players like Shayeanne Day-Wilson, Jersey Wolfenbarger, and Jada Richard join a returning trio of starters in Mikaylah Williams, Aneesah Morrow, and Flau’Jae Johnson who lead the Tigers into the new year. Johnson and Morrow were two of the three SEC Co-Players of the Year in the media ballots, while Williams was named to the all-conference second team as a sophomore. Mulkey is hesitant to make any proclamations at this point, but she’s working to have her team ready for the grind ahead.
“We have returning players with experience and you can’t understate the value of that,” Mulkey said. “Then we have transfers and one freshman who are all competing it out. We’re going to defend and rebound, I can tell you those two things.”
