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What does LSU get in Kim Mulkey? Lots of wins and lots of baggage

Photo Credit: LM Otero/AP

In addition to being huge basketball aficionados, we are also huge fans of wrestling here at Beyond The W (shout outs to Black women wrestlers such as Bianca Belair, Sasha Banks, Naomi and many others that are doing the darn thing in the ring!)

In wrestling, a heel is someone whose kayfabe character is so abrasive, so arrogant and so brash that she or he becomes a villain through the lens of a storyline. Bobby Lashley, Apollo Crews and Sasha are some of wrestling’s flagship heels today. Once upon a time, Triple H was also a great heel in his day.

Sports also have heels – including women’s basketball. Some will say Candace Parker has heel tendencies because she has no filter (and we love that about her). Some will even say Diana Taurasi is a heel because of her history of winning. Many will even say Geno Auriemma, coach at UConn is a heel because of some of the things he has said over the years.

Then there is Kim Mulkey, the recently hired coach at LSU after a storied career as a coach at Baylor which included three national championships – the most recent rendition coming in 2019.

Mulkey, who is from Louisiana, had her introductory press conference in Baton Rouge – and had about as big a heel moment as anyone would have during a pandemic.

Coaches in all sports go out of their way to “win the press conference,” but Mulkey going full Mulkey by using her LSU mask as a prop only to chuck it out of sight as if it were a headband handed LSU its first loss without its team even stepping onto the court.

Apparently, Mulkey has learned zero from her own coronavirus diagnosis. One wonders what current Minnesota Lynx great and former LSU great Sylvia Fowles thinks of this hire …

This is exactly what LSU is getting in Mulkey. There is no questioning she knows how to coach – the three national championships she has won at Baylor is proof positive of that. Waco being a WNBA factory (Brittney Griner, anyone?) is proof positive of that. One does not become a Hall of Fame coach without an extensive resume. Anyone who wants a top-tier coach to lead its women’s hoops program would be crazy to not have Mulkey on their wish list if she is available.

But that is the conundrum with Mulkey. The dilemma is one is not only getting Mulkey the coach, but Mulkey the person – and she brings to any program more baggage than Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

As The Reveille, LSU’s student paper, pointed out, when Baylor was in the midst of a damning sexual assault scandal involving its football team, Mulkey said this in response to anyone who believed the transgressions would make would be Bears think twice about continuing their education in Waco.


If somebody’s around you, and they ever say, ‘I will never send my daughter to Baylor,’ you knock them right in the face.

–Kim Mulkey

Apparently, Baylor PR later got to Mulkey and mentioned how much of a mess those comments were and she had to walk those remarks back. By the way, the Baylor scandal cost ex-football coach Art Briles his job – and that name is automatically synonymous with sexual assault at Baylor and how the school presents itself as a Christian institution when the reality is it appears more devilment is being practiced in Waco than preaching.

By the way, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram recently put out an article where it detailed how Mulkey beefed with Baylor over Briles’ firing.

Then – there was what happened when Baylor won the national championship in 2019 with its win over Notre Dame and its now-retired coach Muffet McGraw (who is much more of a masterclass in integrity, women’s rights and Black allyship than Mulkey could ever be). They went to the White House shortly after – and we all know who was president that year (do not worry, we will not mention that man’s name and never have here).

Not only did her (mostly Black) roster have to go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with that man in it, they were treated to a food menu that looked more fitting for a truck stop rendezvous than a greeting of national champions. One can only imagine how uncomfortable they must have felt and perhaps over the years more stories like those will come out.

Even Mulkey herself looked uneasy. Live by the … well, you know the rest.

And apparently, this past women’s basketball tournament – in Texas of all places – Mulkey had a latest addition to her greatest hits collection when she had this to say about testing players for Covid-19 in the lead up to the Final Four.

Again … Mulkey herself caught coronavirus and looked uncomfortable even wearing the mask at that press conference. By the way, her “take this damn mask off” quip looks worse when considering fellow SEC coach Dawn Staley, South Carolina’s coach, has expressed herself vociferously during games this season *with her mask on.*

The storyline being peddled around Texas and Louisiana circles is how Mulkey left a legacy at Baylor and is returning to her home state as a conquering hero. She shouted out Tangipahoa Parish (an exurban metro-New Orleans parish) in her introductory presser in Baton Rouge.

The real story is how Mulkey is leaving one athletics program with a sketchy culture and going to another athletics program with a sketchy culture. After all, LSU is embroiled in its own sexual assault scandal that cost former LSU (and Kansas) football coach Les Miles his job in Lawrence and current coach Ed Orgeron reportedly asked a 70-plus year old woman to forgive former running back Derrius Guice for supposedly sexually harassing her.

Perhaps Mulkey will give a presser expressing how LSU is a great place for women – of all ages, whether they are 70 years old or 20 years old.

Then … there is this.

Mulkey, five days ago while in the process of trading the green and gold of Baylor for the purple and gold of LSU tweeting congratulations to Jordan Lewis, a former Alabama graduate transfer who entered the transfer portal and went to Baylor.

And people wonder why the transfer portal is a thing (as schools like Syracuse are painfully finding out)? Stuff. Like. This. The only question on that is if that tweet is ever going to get deleted from Mulkey’s account.

Luckily, screenshots are forever.

Speaking of Griner …

Where’s there’s smoke … you know the rest.

From a basketball perspective it definitely makes the SEC an even more formidable conference than it already was. Look obviously at South Carolina. Look at Texas A&M. Look at Georgia. Look at Kentucky with Rhyne Howard. Look at Tennessee and how it is arguably the most revered women’s basketball school in the country not named UConn.

From a recruiting standpoint, it helps. Say what one wants about Mulkey as we have here – she lands players because of how big a name she is. All one has to do is look at Vic Schaefer at Texas to see that getting a top-notch coach (as Mulkey is) matters at the college level (not to mention what Staley has built with the Gamecocks). When people look at LSU and they see Mulkey the coach, it creates the potential for more Sylvia Fowles’ to be created out of Baton Rouge.

Mulkey the person though, is an entirely different story than Mulkey the coach – and given her track record of putting her foot in her mouth, renewed attention to these issues may make parents and would-be recruits think twice before deciding to geaux to the Tigers.

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