"We don’t sleep on Saturday nights" Kim Mulkey responds to LSU's late tipoff in NCAA Tournament

Not only is LSU playing it’s first game on Saturday, day two of the NCAA Tournament, but the Tigers are the night cap, set to tipoff at 9:15 p.m. CT in Baton Rouge. Kim Mulkey’s squad is a 3-seed for the fourth straight year and hosting 14-seed San Diego State to begin their tournament run, but the tipoff time certainly caught LSU’s fans and their head coach off guard when it was announced.

“I’m taking the approach that they chose us to play the late game because they know in Baton Rouge we don’t sleep on Saturday nights,” Mulkey said on 104.5 ESPN on Tuesday. “That’s about the time the students start hitting the bars, so we gotta get them out there. Some of the senior fans might bail and watch it on TV. I’m trying to take the [positive] approach, but are you kidding me? 9:15 at night?”

The Tigers have not played a game since losing to Texas in the SEC Tournament semifinals on March 8 and will now have to continue to wait for the madness to begin. A major storyline throughout the past week has been the status of junior guard Flau’Jae Johnson and senior forward Aneesah Morrow, two All-SEC first-team selections.

Johnson has not played since Feb. 27, dealing with shin inflammation, while Morrow has a bruise on her foot that she re-aggravated in the loss to Texas. Both have been itching to return and Kim Mulkey says both were back at practice in full capacity for the first time on Monday.

“We practiced [Monday] with Flau’Jae [Johnson] and [Aneesah] Morrow, which was great, but you don’t play tomorrow,” Mulkey said. “You don’t play until Saturday and if you win you play Monday. You space things out and make sure you do a scouting report on each of the three that are here. Yesterday was all about us and taking care of us and doing things with a full squad that we hadn’t been able to do as of late.

“Flau’Jae is smiling from ear to ear and both are ready to go.”

FULL BRACKET BREAKDOWN AND PREDICTIONS

Before LSU tips off at 9:15, 6-seed Florida State and 11-seed George Mason, the other two teams in the Baton Rouge regional, will play at 6:45 p.m. in their first round game. If that game runs late, the Tigers could be looking at an even later tipoff than scheduled, but Mulkey can not control that. What she hopes for is that she’s built up enough excitement and anticipation for the postseason that fans will show up regardless of the start time.

She’s already taken the first step in ensuring the PMAC will be rocking on Saturday.

“I’m buying tickets for our students, this is not a gimme,” Mulkey said. “You have to pay for these tickets, the NCAA takes over the arena, some season ticket holders aren’t going to be able to sit where they normally sit during the season, but get your tickets and come on. If the allotment goes up I’ll buy more. They need to get it in quickly because they’re going to fill up quickly.”

LSU is the favorite to come out of this section of the bracket, but Florida State is a dangerous 6-seed, while San Diego State and George Mason both won their conferences to get here. The second round game will be on Monday in the PMAC, but a time is not announced yet.

No matter the start time, Kim Mulkey is fired up to get on the court.

“One thing fans can’t do is take these first and second round games for granted,” Mulkey said. “This has been a long time coming and four years in a row we’ve been able to do this and this is what you hired us to do as a staff – bring this program to respectability. You can sleep on Sunday. You can miss church, but get out there. We have an unbelievable reputation of being loud and let’s not let the game time start affect us.”