8:55 AM
Kim Mulkey is sitting on a white sofa in her new house. One of the biggest coaching moves in women's basketball history happened when she moved from Baylor to Baton Rouge. She won her first game at LSU.
A pizza and a newspaper are scattered on a white kitchen countertop next to fresh-baked cookies. Mulkey looks at the television, where two teams are playing. The college basketball season starts today.
Mulkey's cellphone buzzes with texts when it is quiet. Mulkey's priority is sleeping soundly on her chest with her baby granddaughter. Outside on the front lawn, her daughter, Makenzie, and grandson, Kannon, toss a football in the afternoon sun. Mulkey's son comes and goes with friends and staff.
The fiery figure on the sidelines, blazing eyes, and tortured-looking facial expressions often immortalized on camera, is at this moment a far cry from Grandma Mulkey. On or off the court, the coach's authenticity is both her strength and weakness, winning over recruits and fans, and sparking controversy with a bluntness that is as synonymous with Mulkey as the three national titles she won at Baylor.
Mulkey is at a crossroads in his career. After building a Final Four powerhouse from the ground up in Texas, the 59-year-old Hall of Famer returned 50 miles from her childhood home to take over a program that has fallen into a middle-of-the-pack malaise. Mulkey wants to turn LSU into a national champion and she wants to do it SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA is SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA is SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA SALVAGEDATA
"I know what I've done," Mulkey said. I understand how difficult it is.
LSU is banking on Mulkey's potential despite his past. There were some controversial episodes during her 21-year tenure at Baylor, a place where Mulkey ultimately parted ways with an administration she wasn't sure wanted her to stay.
Mulkey is not taking anything for granted. Don't think that people will fill the stands, that a second title will follow a first.
She told players, staff and fans after every milestone that it was something she always preached.
She didn't want to be taken for granted, so she had to stay at Baylor or move to LSU. It's not as egotistical as competitive survival instinct would suggest. She is from Louisiana, and that draw was strong. LSU told Mulkey that it needed her.
She said that she didn't know ifaylor wouldn't really do it. Maybe they want me out the door. Maybe they'll say good riddance.
I didn't have a problem with feeding that success monster. I was not done at Baylor. That's what it is. No one saw this coming.
Kim Mulkey knows that everything she says doesn't come across as politically correct. I hope my good will always outweigh my bad.
Fans fill a ballroom at a local hotel hours before the season opener. The boosters are well-versed in their new coach's history and eager for the Kim Mulkey era to begin. LSU sold a program-record 4,502 season tickets in Mulkey's first year.
One of the 165 LSU fans at the luncheon remembers watching Mulkey play in high school. Mulkey came to mind when news broke that Fargas was leaving.
Guitreau said that other people were saying they couldn't afford her. "I said, 'We can't afford not to have her.'
"It was like Christmas when Mulkey took the job," LSU fan Patti Scurlock said. She needs time, but we believe she's going to take us places we haven't been in a while.
LSU went to five consecutive Final Fours from 2004 to 2008. The Tigers haven't won a game in the NCAA tournament since 2014, and they haven't played in the national semifinals in a while. If Mulkey leads LSU to an NCAA title, it will be the first time in the history of the sport that no head coach has won NCAA titles at two different schools. Rick Pitino did it at Kentucky and Louisville, but his title with the Cards was taken away because of NCAA rules violations.
Guitreau said he went to all five Final Fours. It is so frustrating to be right there and not be able to take the next step. I think Kim will get us there.
As a point guard, Mulkey wasted no time in working the room. One enthusiastic fan starts a monologue about Mulkey's background that references the Book of Esther's line about being born "for such a time as this." Mulkey seizes the moment and thanks him.
She said as the room laughed that she thought she had left the Baptists in Waco.
Mulkey has always been one of their own as a Louisianan. She won four state titles and two national titles as a player at Hammond High and Louisiana Tech, and in 1984 she won the gold medal in women's basketball at the Olympics.
In 15 years as an assistant and associate coach at Louisiana Tech, Mulkey was part of seven Final Four appearances and helped guide the Lady Techsters to the 1988 national championship.
Before Mulkey arrived, the Bears had never been to the tournament. The Bears won a dozen Big 12 regular-season titles and 11 conference tournament titles.
Bobby Knight and Dean Smith are the only college basketball coaches to win national titles as a player and a coach. One of the most painful losses in the history of the LSU basketball program was the 84-62 loss to Baylor in the 2005 national semifinals. The first half of the game in Indianapolis was so emotional that Makenzie, and her brother, were in tears.
They raced across the court for a Mama Bear hug after the national championship win.
"I was a kid and still involved with the team, so I was at that perfect age," said the baseball player. I thought I was one of them. I asked if I would get a ring.
When Mulkey left for LSU, he would have driven the truck himself. He was an All-American at LSU and had hoped for years that the women's basketball job would open for his mom.
She had to prove herself at Baylor. She had done everything there. The people in Louisiana will love her more than anyone else.
Kim Mulkey won her first game at LSU. The guard had a triple-double in the win over the Colonels. LSU plays Iowa State on Thursday. The Big 12/SEC Challenge will be aired on the ESPYS.
MULKEY's success is obvious, but she has her critics and has been a polarizing figure because of her own comments. Did the LSU administration take that into account when hiring her?
It was not an issue for me. Scott Woodward said that Kim's personality is something he likes. I like passion. In a world where everyone wants to be perfect, we just discard someone who makes a mistake. We are humans.
31 members of the football team were accused of sexual assault in February of last year. Mulkey became incensed when she heard a television commentator say that parents shouldn't send their daughters to Baylor. That was personal to Mulkey.
"If somebody's around you and they ever say, 'I will never send my daughter to you,' you knock them right in the face," Mulkey told the crowd after she won her 500th game. The kids are on this campus. I work here. My daughter attended this school and it's the best in America.
Mulkey's friends say that Kramer is his mama made over. Both are competitors. He sent her a text when he saw Mulkey's remarks. He urged her to apologize and clarify what she meant as soon as possible.
Mulkey said he hated that he used the remark about punching them in the face. That was not a joke. I was trying to make a point, to be firm in what you are saying. I'm not violent. I apologize for the poor choice of words.
Mulkey regrets that she used those words, and that anyone thought she was making light of the allegations. She wanted to stand up for her players and other staff members who were not involved but who were being unfairly judged by their association with the school.
Mulkey's comments about finishing the season during a Pandemic sparked controversy when she said that it was about the almighty dollar. Mulkey said she was just being pragmatic. She said there was too much money at stake to not play.
Play.
The NCAA should stop testing the players for COVID-19 before the men's and women's Final Four, suggests Kim Mulkey.
After the Elite Eight loss, Mulkey said that the NCAA should dump the COVID testing. The NCAA medical staff told the coaches that the odds of a positive test by the regional finals were remote, and that a false positive could keep a player out of the Final Four. Critics slammed Mulkey for his reckless suggestion. The NCAA continued testing.
Mulkey said that he asked her to speak out on the topic if the Bears won the game. Mulkey told Auriemma that she would do so, even though she didn't know if the Bears would win or lose. Auriemma's and Mulkey's postgame video conferences were dominated by the noncall, but she ended her news conference with comments on testing.
Leon Barmore, Mulkey's college coach and former boss at Louisiana Tech, said he wished she wouldn't have said something. I'll think, 'Kim, why not just stay away from that?' She knows she's not right every time. She probably regrets some things. I know she does. She always has a sense of honesty about her.
Mulkey said she has learned to deal with criticism. The coach and her program were accused of being anti-gay in May of last year. Makenzie said that accusation hurts the worst.
"Because I was on that team," Makenzie said.
"It was more of a law that you don't talk about your sexuality, just don't do it," he said. They tried to make it seem like they didn't want to put their business out on the street.
Kim Mulkey and her team led the way to a perfect 40-0 season. They are no longer in each other's lives. We're probably two strong-headed individuals. It's difficult. I wish Kim well. I know LSU has a good coach.
In that interview, she said that her sexuality was a secret. When she was recruiting me, I told her. I said I'm gay. She told me that it wasn't a problem. My teammates knew that. Everyone knew about it.
On Thursday, she said that her comments were not about Mulkey.
She didn't write the rules at the school, so it's not a personal attack on her. She was only doing what she thought was best, according to her, who is playing in the WNBA off-season. It was anti-the-system for me. I still love the school.
I also learned from it. I think she learned something from it and will apply it to the new players she's coaching.
Mulkey has played for and coached gay people throughout her life in basketball, and it has never been an issue. She said she didn't pay attention to the statement in the student handbook that sex should be limited to heterosexual marriage. In May, the school passed a resolution to provide support for all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, but it also stated that sexual relations of any kind outside of marriage between a man and a woman are not in keeping with the teaching of Scripture.
"Baylor is a private institution, but I'm a public school graduate," Mulkey said. I wouldn't work for a place that tried to make us go to church or control our personal lives. Never.
Mulkey cautions players to avoid putting too much of their personal life into the public eye. She accepts that her players don't have to take this advice.
"She says that if you are gay, straight, bi, pansexual, whatever, you're free to do that," said current LSU player. Coach Mulkey is not gay. My grandmother tells me that everyone doesn't need to know every detail of their private life.
Morris, who was dismissed from the team before her sophomore year after she was arrested for an altercation, was openly gay as a freshman. She showed up at LSU this summer without being promised that she would be added to the team.
Morris said that he came here because he needed that woman in his life. She said things that stuck with me the whole way through. The way she teaches the game makes sense to me. I think I do the same thing. I think I'm also a misunderstood person.
Mulkey knows she will say the wrong thing again.
Mulkey said that his gut is what he goes by. I think it's the right thing to do. It may not be politically correct, but my heart is in the right place. Sometimes it's taken the wrong way. That's fair. I don't want to hurt anyone. All of us have badness. I hope my good will always outweigh my bad.
Kim Mulkey's grandson, Kannon, was at a booster event. Makenzie was Mulkey's daughter and she played at the school. She was an associate director of basketball operations.
She was on Mulkey's coaching staff for the third championship in 2019. When her mother mentioned the LSU job, Makenzie thought it was not going to happen. I'm just going to let it go.
Mulkey said the decision to leave was difficult and had nothing to do with money.
"Baylor took good care of me and my assistants," Mulkey said.
Her relationship with Mack Rhoades was strained. When Mulkey got a question about her legacy, she said that maybe her administration needed to be asked about it.
Ian McCaw was the athletic director at the time that Mulkey was hired by the athletic director. McCaw's resignation was caused by the sexual assault investigation.
Mulkey and Rhoades clashed over what Mulkey called "little things" that represented something bigger. Mulkey was upset that the school wouldn't drop confetti in celebration of the Big 12 title. She didn't care how many league titles the Bears had already won. It was the first time for some of her players.
Kim Mulkey doesn't come along very often, and you had her. Leon Barmore was shocked that the Bears didn't do more to keep Kim Mulkey from leaving.
After the second NCAA title in 2012 the boosters began to advocate for Mulkey's name to be put on the floor. The administration wanted to wait because Mulkey was still young in her career, according to a source. The boosters offered to pay for Mulkey's name to be added to the court after the third national championship. The source said that the administration resisted.
The court at the new basketball arena will be named for Paula and Mark Hurd, who donated to the school.
She said that that didn't make her leave. I would never have left a program that would have put my name on the court.
Rhoades referred to a previously released statement that said "Baylor will always be grateful for the years of success and pride Kim brought to the university." Kim decided to go back to her hometown and we did everything we could to support her and the program.
Kim was told by Woodward that it was time to come back home. We need you. We want to be with you. You can help us get back on the right track.
The sales pitch was successful.
"I don't know if it's because we're both from Louisiana, but he didn't have to say too much," Mulkey said of Woodward. "We talk simplistically."
Woodward, a Baton Rouge native who is a year younger than Mulkey, said that trying to hire her was a no-brainer.
I felt like I was talking to my sister when I spoke to her. I asked if you were coming home. We have to get this done. Let's go. "Come on,'" he said. It was almost to the point of being weird.
Barmore was surprised that Mulkey left.
He said that it's really something where you can't understand, when you have someone like Kim Mulkey winning titles for you. If the president or athletic director had said "We love you, we want you to stay", she would be in Waco today. They did not do that.
Kim Mulkey doesn't come along very often, and you had her.
Kim Mulkey, LSU's assistant athletic director for women's basketball operations, reads a newspaper with her face on the cover while watching a basketball game on TV.
Mulberry is in her favorite spot at her new home, a covered patio by a pool and hot tub. It's a place where she likes to relax and watch game film if the weather is nice.
She rests her feet on the chair across from her as Kannon wanders out to fetch his paints, brushes and latest masterpiece from the patio table.
She sings softly.
I try to look strong, but sometimes alone I cry.
Mulkey said that her counseling and therapy has always been music.
When trust is broken, it usually doesn't mend. She has talked about how devastated she was when her father divorced her mother, and how she wanted to go to Mulkey's wedding with his new wife. Mulkey wouldn't allow the couple to sit in the row behind her mother. Mulkey and her father have been apart ever since.
Mulkey was crushed when her husband asked her for a divorce a year after the first national championship.
She's had a hard time getting over the fact that her dad and Randy hurt her. She has a soft side, and I've seen that with her kids and her players. She can't get past certain things.
It's similar to the Louisiana Tech job. I thought she had it. I wanted her to have it.
Many in the industry expected Mulkey to replace Barmore when he retired in 2000. When Louisiana Tech wouldn't give her the five-year deal she wanted, Mulkey saw it as a repudiation of the 19 years she had spent at Louisiana Tech as a player and a coach. Barmore and Mulkey stayed on for a couple more years.
Kim Mulkey is considered one of LSU's own. One booster watched Mulkey play in high school 40 years ago, and the point guard won two national titles as a player at Louisiana Tech.
Mulkey moved on after she left Louisiana Tech. She said she has after every disappointment.
Music makes the pain go away. Rick May, the former play-by-play man for the women's basketball team, put together a list of songs about divorce to help her after her marriage ended.
She said that it brought some smiles. I would listen to it while driving. You know the song "If you're going through hell, keep on going". Or that song by Lorrie Morgan.
Is this the thanks I get? Mulkey sang. Are all the years we shared easy to forget?
It helped me. When Makenzie found out she was going to lose her baby, it was the same thing.
Scout Marie was Mulkey's first grandchild and she was stillborn.
"That put me over the edge," Mulkey said. My friends would send me music. One of the things I still think about is that you can't let everyone see you grieve, but at night, that's when you do it.
Play.
Kim Mulkey was in the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame class.
Her closest circle has not changed a lot since she was at Louisiana Tech. Cheryl was a friend of Kim's who kept the scorebook at the high school. The couple thought of Mulkey as the daughter they never had. Cheryl stayed with Mulkey and her family after the death of her husband.
Mulkey said she is content without a romantic relationship because her family, friends and team mean everything to her. She doesn't want to be vulnerable again.
People ask if you've ever dated since your divorce. She said she didn't want to put the effort into it. I thought it would be too complicated for my children. They are more important than anything else. I don't think some people need a spouse or a partner. I don't get lonely and I'm very content with who I am.
I don't allow a lot of people to get to know me.
Before Kim Mulkey arrived, the Bears had never been to the tournament. LSU went to five consecutive Final Fours from 2004 to 2008 and she wants to lead the team to its first NCAA tournament in a decade.
The LSU players were excited when they heard that Mulkey had taken the job, but also curious. They talked to players who played for Mulkey, such as the Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four.
She said you're going to love her. "She gets the best out of her players, and she's passionate," said LSU point guard Khayla Pointer.
Mulkey doesn't play pickup or set screens and takes charges in workouts like she did when she was younger, but her energy level is still visible.
The pace and pace with her is different. It has been fun to practice.
Kim Mulkey's family was on hand for her debut at LSU. Robertson, a former LSU baseball star, had long hoped that his mom would take the women's basketball job at LSU.
The first Top 25 test of the season will be held Thursday. They are learning "Mulkeyisms" against Iowa State. Want to know what's going on? Mulkey will tell you how the cow ate the cabbage. Mulkey suggests that if she doubts the truth, she should call it Love Story.
Even though Makenzie decided to stay in Waco with her husband, Clay, and their two children, they think she will still make them laugh with her country witticisms.
Makenzie said that she is as real as it gets.
Muffet McGraw, who left Notre Dame to coach in the national championship games, admires Mulkey for it, but she couldn't have imagined leaving the Irish after so many years. One of the most rewarding parts of coaching is the chance to build something again.
She brings a feisty sort of presence to our game, said McGraw. Women coaches are very careful about what they say. Kim just says what she thinks. It's refreshing to listen to her. She's a walking history book of our game.
Since the 1970s, Mulkey has played and coached against the best in women's college basketball. Mulkey was either a part of the milestone or knew someone who was.
"I didn't think of it like that for a long time, because she was just'mom,'" he said. I think it was cool to see the legends that knew about her, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas.
Mulkey still wants to add to that legacy. Barmore was an assistant to Mulkey for three years at Baylor, after he finished at Louisiana Tech with a.869 winning percentage.
Barmore said that Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt and Kim were the greatest of all time in the women's game. I always thought of Pat. You have to give it to Geno, he can coach. And so can Kim.
Mulkey will have a lot of big wins. In the middle of the night, she will wake up in the middle of the night and write something down on a notepad next to her table.
She said that she has wisdom, but that she is not the same age as when she went to college. There's no substitute for my knowledge and experience. I have a lot left in the tank.
