LSU Tigers coach Kim Mulkey once defended a couple of her former standouts amid allegations of physical play. On Feb. 4, 2024, Mulkey and the Tigers were coming off a huge 40-point drubbing of the Florida Gators at Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during their national title defense year in the 2023-24 season.
During the post-game press conference, Mulkey was asked about the roughness her players, such as Angel Reese and Mikaylah Williams, possessed that was especially apparent in the victory over the Gators. For coach Mulkey, it’s all about effort and hustle while looking for each other. She even mentioned one of her former players and ex-Baylor Bears forward Nina Davis, before talking about her LSU players.
“I live with that. That’s just effort. That’s just getting it. She got knocked down one time in front of our bench, and she tried to get up, and she hit the girl agai,n and then Angel got a piece of her on the way down. Angel wasn’t going to let that girl do that to her teammate. Y’all probably didn’t see it, did you? It was like, ‘You just did that to my teammate? I’m going to give you a body check right here,'” Mulkey said (17:17).
“And not dirty; that’s just, ‘I got your back, teammate.’ And that’s how you build what you ask about as you go down this road in February: just good team chemistry,” she added.
Mulkey and the Tigers were looking to win their second straight national championship at that point after they won their program’s first NCAA title in the 2023 national tournament. LSU did this by defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes, previously led by current Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, by a staggering 17 points, 102-85, during the aforementioned year’s national title game.
Read More: Jason Whitlock Brings Up Angel Reese’s Troubled Past With Kim Mulkey As Chicago Star’s Suspension Continues
Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers Were Unable To Accomplish Back-To-Back NCAA Titles That Season
Despite their mighty efforts, coach Kim Mulkey and the 2023-24 LSU Tigers were unable to accomplish their pursuit of back-to-back national titles. Even with the momentum gained by their 2023 national championship win, the Tigers were defeated by the Iowa Hawkeyes in a redemption game that saw the latter beat their opponent by seven points, 94-87, in the Elite Eight of that year’s NCAA tournament.
LSU now heads into the 2025-26 campaign, looking to reclaim national championship glory after they were similarly eliminated in the Elite Eight of the 2025 national tournament.
Also Read: “She Mad Because Angel Reese Made the WNBA”: Fans Disregard Ex-LSU Star’s “Grooming” Allegations Against Kim Mulkey
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