With championship run, Kim Mulkey fulfills her promise to Louisiana

“We have not arrived. We’ve only won games. We haven’t won championships.”

For the past two seasons, this was the answer Kim Mulkey gave anytime she was asked about bringing LSU back to prominence so quickly.

A 26-6 record in year one? Just games.

A 15-0 start to her second season? Just games.

A 15-1 conference season? More games.

To her, this was a team of new pieces that was a long way from competing with some of the best in the nation. Angel Reese was clearly a great player and Alexis Morris was the lone returner in the rotation, but how would a team of nine new players mesh?

The hall-of-fame coach legitimately wasn’t sure.

It made the path to a championship all the more sweet. Every tournament win was met with jubilance. This wasn’t Baylor where she had spent two decades and every season had a “championship or bust” approach. At every turn, she tried to get ahead of a potential misstep, but her team just kept winning game after game. Eventually, there were no more games left to win – just a national championship trophy to hold.

“It was kind of scary because I kept trying to tame that monster,” Mulkey said. “I said, we may be feeding this monster too early, but the crowds just kept getting bigger and bigger and the student section is off the charts at LSU. I can’t describe it to you. People love winners at LSU.”

There’s no more waiting. LSU has arrived. A championship banner will be hung next year. Mulkey further solidifies herself as one of the great coaches in basketball history.

The scary part for the rest of the country is the fact this is only the beginning. 

“We’re national champions in year two, and we’re not all seniors,” Mulkey said. “We lose four outstanding seniors, but the core of your group are young and underclass, and you hope they stay. Lord knows, every time you turn around, people are in the transfer portal, but you signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. And that was before we won a National Championship.”

Fulfilling her promise

With 1:12 left in the fourth quarter, Kim Mulkey was still coaching when Kateri Poole caught the ball on the right wing, a few feet in front of her. Poole rose up and nailed the three and the LSU fans in the crowd erupted. 

Mulkey couldn’t contain her emotions.

She ducked her head into her hands as her team began to celebrate. As the final minute ticked down, freshman guard Flau’Jae Johnson began yelling to Mulkey “You’re the GOAT” over and over, until the two embraced.

“That was with about 50 seconds to go,” Mulkey said. “Coaches are hollering, ‘Get off the court!’ And I said, don’t tell me what to do. I’m fixing to win another championship.”

Before long, the final buzzer sounded and all Mulkey could do was take a seat on the scorers table before she was mobbed by her assistant coaches. The girl from Hammond, Louisiana had brought a title back home.

“I think back to my press conference when Scott Woodward introduced me as LSU’s coach and the number of people that were in that PMAC, the Governor, the politicians, the people who watched me grow up,” Mulkey said. “And I made a statement and asked everybody to turn around and look at those Final Four banners. Nowhere on there did it say “national champions,” and that’s what I came home to do. 

“To walk down the hall and see my former Baylor players that won championships with me, waiting for me. To look in the stands and see my former Louisiana Tech players, it’s emotional. It’s emotional.”

Not only is this the lowest seed Mulkey has led to a title, but it’s one of the most popular and expressive teams in the country. Early in the year, people told her it would be challenging to keep the team together with all of the different personalities.

Yet here she is, winner of her fourth national title, 19 years after her first.

“I think we’ve got a locker room full of kids who like tough love,” Mulkey said. “I don’t have a locker room of a bunch of passive ones, as you know. They will tell you how they feel. They’ll talk trash on the floor. You have to be a very strong coach to coach this many personalities.

And I say that, not to pat myself on the back, but I don’t have a problem getting in their face.”

It clearly means more to the hall-of-famer. As she held back tears after the game, it began to settle in. She’s delivered on her promise faster than anyone could have imagined. 

She’s brought joy to home state.

“I am so happy,” Mulkey said. “Yes, it does matter being back home. I looked out there at those banners hanging at practice the other day here and Baylor is the first banner that’s hanging with three National Championships. Then there’s my Louisiana Tech with two National Championships. And I thought, Kim, you’re getting old. You’re getting old.”