It was a busy week for LSU women’s basketball as Kim Mulkey truly introduced herself to the LSU fanbase in multiple ways.
On Tuesday, LSU had its kickoff event for the Fast Break booster Club where Mulkey spoke to a large crowd of LSU fans inside the PMAC. Mulkey spoke for slightly over half an hour about the team, her experience so far at LSU and many other things that kept the excited crowd engaged.
Her biggest message of the night was how thankful she was for the support from the LSU fans since getting the job.
“First of all, thank you for being here, I know Tuesday nights are busy for a lot of people,” Mulkey said.
She made a point to individually thank everyone within the program and university from President William Tate and Athletic Director Scott Woodward, to each of her players and assistant coaches. She was complimentary of Tate and how supportive he has been of her since her arrival. She told the story of her first conversation with Tate and how it set the foundation for the close relationship they have today.
“The very first thing out of his mouth was his love for women’s athletics,” Mulkey said. “The thing I told him was that I was so impressed that you took the time to call me, I’m nobody in this university, but it showed me that he cared.”
This conversation happened on one of Mulkey’s recruiting trips, and Tate had high praise for Mulkey’s recruiting. After Mulkey called him to the stage, Tate spoke about Mulkey’s ability to bring people into the program who can make an impact both on and off the court.
“She doesn’t just bring in five-star athletes, but five-star people,” Tate said.
Mulkey spent the rest of her speech thanking and crediting her assistants and staff before introducing the team. The team she inherits is a talented one and showed that in its exhibition game against Langston College on Saturday, winning by a score of 112-48. The win marks the official beginning of the Kim Mulkey era at LSU and is the first of two exhibitions before LSU starts the regular season on Nov. 9 against Nicholls State.
The win was very much a team effort for the Tigers, as five players scored in double figures, led by senior guard Khayla Pointer who had 22.
Pointer comes into the 2021-2022 season as one of the leaders of the team in her fifth year with the program. Last season, she earned both First Team All-SEC and All-SEC Defensive Team honors while leading the Tigers in scoring with 16.9 points per game. She once again earned First Team All-SEC preseason honors for the upcoming season and is expected to be the leader of this team. Mulkey echoed this message and expects big things out of Pointer in the upcoming season.
“She is an all-conference player, and a leader out there on the floor,” Mulkey said.
Awa Trasi, Jailin Cherry, Autumn Newby and Timia Ware also finished the game in double figures in what was an absolutely dominant performance from wire to wire. It is already clear that the energy within the team is much higher under Mulkey, which is the first step to rebuilding a program. Mulkey has been adamant about trusting the process and being patient, but this team has at the very least shown that it will be an exciting team to watch this season.
From Mulkey’s words to the team’s first game together, it is no surprise that LSU has already sold 5,000 season tickets and counting for the upcoming season. Excitement around the program is the highest it’s been in a long time, which Mulkey believes is the first step to bringing LSU back to where it once was.
