Kim Mulkey was coach LSU women's basketball needed for Sweet 16, players say: 'She is the plan'
GREENVILLE, S.C. ― There's no plan to turn a program around as quickly as Kim Mulkey has with LSU women's basketball. And she'll be the first to tell you.
The Tigers have won 56 games in two seasons and received top-3 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, the first time the program has done so in more than a decade.
In Year 2, Mulkey has guided LSU (30-2) back to the Sweet 16 of March Madness, another feat it hadn't accomplished in nine years. It will meet 2-seed Utah (27-4) inside Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Friday (4 p.m., ESPN).
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While she's "hit the fast track" in her rebuild, thanks in large part to the transfer portal and adding Angel Reese, her players will be the first to tell you that Mulkey, herself, is the difference.
"She is the plan," LSU senior point guard Alexis Morris said Thursday. She has known Mulkey since she was in the seventh grade and signed to play for her at Baylor five years ago. "Coach Mulkey is the GOAT.
"All LSU needed was Coach Mulkey."
The national-championship winning coach has said before that she can't equate her LSU team to any of her teams at Baylor, which she led to 16 Sweet 16s, one more than LSU has been in its program history. Many national pundits around the sport were a little surprised Mulkey decided to leave a place where she had won national titles.
When she took over at LSU, she knew the path to getting a once-storied program back to the top tier of the women's basketball would look different than it did at Baylor because of the transfer portal and Name, Image, Likeness.
Both have changed the game. But Mulkey has adapted, included how she constructed her staff, and her players have noticed.
"How she attacks the game, the way she helps us prepare for games, that's why we've come this far," senior wing Jasmine Carson said. "We wanted to win one more game than last year but I know she's excited that we're exceeding expectations in her second year."
Seventy-five percent of this year's roster is new to the program, whether it be incoming freshman or transfer.
"Even though we are young and have nine new pieces, she doesn't really have expectations for us," Reese said. "But when she has confident people on her team, I think it kind of lifts up a lot of weight on her shoulders. She's confident in us."
Mulkey and her players realize that some gambles have paid off.
"She brought us here," freshman Flau'jae Johnson said. "That's why she doesn't give herself enough credit. She brought these pieces to Baton Rouge. She probably didn't know how it was going to fit, but she knew that she had something. You feel me? We're building a culture, so everything we're doing right now is building a culture for next year and next year.
"Hopefully it will be a Final Four team every year. That's what we're trying to build. But Coach Mulkey, she put the pieces together. She's been doing this a long time. All we've got to do is play our part, and she's going to lead us there."
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers and Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers and Cajuns coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU/UL athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Kim Mulkey: LSU women's basketball coach gets Sweet 16 credit vs Utah
