With No. 3 LSU women's basketball preparing for a showdown with a top-ranked South Carolina team that represents its biggest regular games in years, there's another monumental matchup on people's minds.
Will we ever see an LSU vs Baylor showdown, pitting Mulkey's new team against the powerhouse program the Louisiana spent 21 years building and led to three national titles? That's what a texter asked as LSU's head coach joined SportsTalk this week with Bobby Hebert and Mike Detillier.
The simple answer: Nope, never. And Mulkey explained why it's the same reason she'll never put Louisiana Tech on the Tigers' schedule, either.
“I put too much heart, blood, sweat and tears into hanging those banners in [La. Tech's] Thomas Assembly Center and I don’t ever take any pleasure is going back there and beating a team or a program. They may beat me, but it’s just too emotional," she said. "And that would be the same way that I would answer about the Baylor deal. When you spend 19 years of your life in Ruston, Louisiana and you built that program, I can’t do it. When you spend 21 years of your life in Waco, Texas, in the Ferrell Center, I can’t do it.
Listen to the full interview with Kim Mulkey in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Now, a lot of people would probably say ‘that’s chicken crap.’ No, I’m sorry, that is my loyalty. That is my love for those institutions and I know what it took at each institution to build those programs, and I’m not going to do it."
It's a unique answer for a unique coach in a unique situation, but it's nothing if not an honest answer. Few college coaches have ever found themselves in such a situation, having led multiple past programs for extensive periods and national titles. Mulkey was never the full head coach at Louisiana Tech, but she did spend five seasons as an associated head coach (1996-'00), which followed 12 seasons as as assistant beginning in 1985. She also spent for seasons there as a player, winning an NCAA title in 1982. La. Tech also won an NCAA Tournament title in 1988 during her time as an assistant.
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She joined Baylor in 2000 and led the Bears to three NCAA Tournament banners (2005, 2012 and 2019), 12 Big 12 regular season titles and 11 Big 12 Tournament titles. She finished her Baylor career with an astonishing record of 632-104 before making the surprise decision to return to her home state and LSU beginning in 2021. The winning ways have followed, with a record of 49-6 midway through her second season.
And while that run will certainly include appointment-viewing showdowns between LSU and some of the top teams in the nation, she'll definitively say that none of those will be featuring Baylor or Louisiana Tech.
"You don’t spend your whole life living out of a suitcase. I never did. I had packed my suitcase when I was 18 years old to go to North Louisiana and I spent 19 years there. Then I packed my suitcase again and spent 21 years in Waco, Texas," she continued. "Nope, it wasn’t just a job to me. I was invested in those places. I never thought I would leave those places, and so the answer is no, I will never go back to either one because it’s too emotional. There’s too much in my heart for those places.”
LSU and South Carolina tip off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12 (ESPN).
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