The NCAA women's basketball season is headed down to the wire, and the reigning champs are in the midst of the biggest challenge yet: Sustaining success.
The Tigers at 22-4 (9-3 SEC) don't boast quite the same resume as they did a year ago, but they'll have the same questions to answer, as LSU head coach Kim Mulkey explained on WWL Radio this week.
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Kim Mulkey in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
"I think it goes in cycles for women’s basketball, and men’s basketball, for that matter," Mulkey told Mike Detillier and Bobby Hebert on SportsTalk this week. "I think you recruit good, you win and people want to be around winners. And then friends recruit friends and all kinds of things, but I tell people all the time that the hardest part of competing for championships is maintaining it."
The Tigers faced similar questions a year ago, entering as a 3 seed despite just one regular season loss to the dominant South Carolina women. They ran roughshod through their bracket and the Gamecocks were upset by Iowa in the Final Four. Even as champions the Tigers are yet to defeat South Carolina head-to-head are still seeking SEC regular season and tournament titles. LSU was slotted in at 14 on the first top-16 rankings, indicating they'd land as a 4 seed if the NCAA Tournament started this week.
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"It’s very difficult to ever win one, I mean, we can sit here and probably name many coaches and players that have never won a championship," Mulkey said. "But then when you do start naming those coaches and players that win a championship, it kind of gets real narrow when you start talking about multiple championships, and you start talking about dynasties. Every little list gets smaller and smaller, and that’s very, very difficult."
The 13th-ranked Tigers are back in action on Thursday when they host Auburn at 8 p.m. at the PMAC, with eyes on avenging a surprising loss from earlier in the year.
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MORE FROM MULKEY
On rematch with Auburn
“I want to always give props to the opposing team that wins the game. I said it after the game, don’t write about what we didn’t do, write what Auburn did to us in that game, and what they did is they manhandled us, if you ask me. They got up in us, they were very, very aggressive on ball and we were very passive. We had turnovers. They dribble penetrated offensively, and we were not very good defensively then. We’re better today than we were then. They seem to play with more of a chip on their shoulder, like we’re coming at you, and I didn’t think that we handled ourselves very well. So now we’ve got a second chance and not many opportunities do you have in sports to have do-overs, and it’s on our court and one of the last two games we have and I hope that we’re better. I know we’re better. I hope that we play with a little more chip on our shoulder than they will.”
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On LSU's depth
“Depth is something we did have. We lost Sa’Myah Smith, our starting 5 player. In the Cayman Islands she tore her knee up, so there goes one. We have another that’s no longer on the team in Kateri Poole that started for us in the playoffs. There’s another one that’s gone. So we had a lot of depth, but when those types of things happen, you’ve got to keep on keeping on. And so our depth is not what it was, but, you know, at the end of the day there’s an old saying, just give me five players that hate to lose and I’ll give you a winner.”
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On star power in the women's game
“I will agree with you on that. I think a lot of that has to do, when you think about those two names that you mentioned, they played for a national championship, there was a lot of trash talk and there was a lot of intense moments. They were two teams going at it, very good teams, and I think it has carried over from television ratings from that championship game into people watching them and they’re also on social media, they’re also big in their NIL products. There’s so much excitement right now about the popularity of women’s basketball and it honestly has carried over to this year. It was unbelievable after the game, again, at A&M how long it took us to get out of that arena because of fans everywhere, and our girls are very good at going back out there and hugging and taking pictures and signing autographs. Somebody should show that to y’all, because I can’t emphasize to you enough what they see every time they play. And I’m sure it’s the same way with Caitlin Clark at Iowa.”