The Kim Mulkey era officially began this week as LSU Women’s Basketball had its first official practice of the year in front of fans and the media.
The first thing that stood out was the intensity the team brought from the start. Mulkey has been known throughout her career as a very passionate coach, and it already seems to be making an impact on her team at LSU. The intensity definitely brought excitement to the fans in attendance and really set the tone for what this team wants its identity to be.
Fan engagement has been something Mulkey has emphasized since the day she was hired. She wants to bring excitement back to the program, and believes that without fans, that excitement is not possible.
“I want to sell 5,000 season tickets for this first season,” Mulkey said. “That’s important because it shows our recruits and it shows people that we’re hungry for our program to do what it used to do.”
Recruiting is another huge emphasis for Mulkey early on, much like most coaches when inheriting a new program. Having only won nine games last season, it’s rather unrealistic for people to expect a monumental turnaround in the first season, but Mulkey believes fan support and engagement will attract more recruits in order to get the program to where it used to be.
“My recruiting pitch is that this is LSU, the brand sells itself,” Mulkey said. “We will work hard to recruit and we’re not going to get all the recruits, we weren’t able to get them all at Baylor, but it won’t be from lack of work.”
LSU returns multiple key players going into the 2021-2022 season, most notably graduate student guard Khayla Pointer. Pointer enters the year coming off an impressive senior season where she averaged 16.9 PPG and earned SEC All-Defensive Team honors. Pointer was the Tigers’ leading scorer last season and became the 34th player in LSU history to score 1,000 career points.
“She is an All-Conference player and a leader on the floor,” Mulkey said when talking about Pointer. “But she is learning, it’s a new system for her, but she will be one of our leaders as will Faustine [Aifuwa] and as will [Jailin] Cherry.”
The first practice had all the elements that one would expect from an opening practice. The play wasn’t perfect, but it was easy to tell the culture that Mulkey brings to the team and the fanbase. Although it’s unrealistic for fans to expect big results right away from this team, it’s clear that the building blocks are in place under Mulkey’s guidance.
“I know how fans are, everyone wants everything yesterday, but it’s a long process,” Mulkey said.
The Tigers will open the season on Oct. 30, when they face Langston University at 2 p.m. on the Dale Brown Court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
