Kim Mulkey likens LSU-Alabama football game to 2005 LSU-Baylor women's Final Four game

BATON ROUGE – When asked about the upcoming SEC West rivalry showdown between No. 10 LSU and No. 6 Alabama in a sold-out Tiger Stadium Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN), Kim Mulkey lauded the job first-year football coach Brian Kelly and his staff have done.

"Kudos to our football staff, they've only lost one SEC game and they lost to a team they should've lost to [Tennessee]," Mulkey told reporters during a press conference Wednesday. "And they've beat one or two that they weren't predicted to beat, right?

"That's a sign of progress."

Mulkey knows a thing or two about ahead-of-schedule progress in a Year 1. A season ago, she guided the LSU women's basketball team to 26 wins, its most in 14 years, the second round of the NCAA Tournament and has the Tigers ranked No. 16 in the preseason Associated Press poll for the first time since 2013.

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In his first season in Baton Rouge, Kelly has guided the football team to a 6-2 record through eight games, has the Tigers tied atop the SEC West standings with the prohibitive favorites to win the league championship in Alabama (7-1) and ranked 10th in the first College Football Playoff rankings, which were revealed Tuesday.

There are not many similarities between the two sports, as Mulkey pointed out the use of analytics that football coaches have utilized to make decisions during games.

"I'm not a gambler. But I'm good at blackjack. Play and make your own decisions, you're not dependent on someone else," she said. "What do I know? Analytics tells them what to do. Analytics doesn't tell me what to do, my eyeballs tell me what to do."

Looking at the tall order the LSU football team has before them this weekend against the Crimson Tide as 12.5-point home underdogs, Mulkey drew parallels to her 2004-05 Baylor team.

That year, Mulkey's Bears faced off with LSU, headlined by program legends Sylvia Fowles and Seimone Augustus, in the Final Four and were the clear underdogs. But Baylor upset the Tigers in Indianapolis that night, 68-57, en route to beating Michigan State for the national championship two nights later, Mulkey's first title.

"With that being said, we all probably would agree that Alabama is supposed to win the game, right? So I'm going to compare and leave you with this thought: we all probably would agree that in 2005 LSU women's basketball was supposed to win the national championship and beat Baylor, right?" Mulkey said.

"That's why you play the games."

LSU women's basketball hosts Langston for its final preseason exhibition Thursday night (7 p.m., SEC Network+) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

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-Bama game similar to 2005 LSU-Baylor Final Four game