Believe it or not, Kim Mulkey and Virginia Tech head coach Kenny Brooks have matched up in the NCAA tournament before.

Despite that matchup occurring just two tournaments ago in 2021, a lot has changed since the last time they faced each other. 

At that time, Mulkey was looking to obtain her first set of back-to-back championships at Baylor after winning the previous one in 2019. Though Baylor came into the tournament as a No. 2 seed, it was still one of the favorites to win it all, sporting two total losses and a 17-game win streak in which it largely dominated. 

On the other hand, Brooks had just achieved his biggest feat with the Hokies so far. 

Prior to his arrival in 2016, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball program was long past its heyday and had not made the NCAA Tournament since 2006. After winning 28 games and making the Sweet 16 in 1999, it narrowly missed out on the following tournament and steadily regressed from there. 

The hire of Brooks made perfect sense considering his previous tenure with James Madison, a school which resides just a two-hour drive away from Virginia Tech’s campus. He had built the program into a Colonial powerhouse and consistent tournament attendee, appearing in five tournaments between 2010 and 2016.  

Despite being a mid-major program, nobody wanted to face Brooks according to Kim Mulkey. 

“Kenny [Brooks] was at James Madison and nobody ever wanted to play him because he was that good of a coach and just really did wonderful things there,” Mulkey told reporters on Tuesday. 

The lone time the two coaches faced off while Brooks was with the Dukes, they trailed Baylor by just five points at the half, strong evidence of Brooks’ capabilities despite the Bears eventually pulling away. While one Virginia school thrived, another was amidst one of its worst stretches in program history. 

Through the late 2000s and early 2010s, Virginia Tech was a consistent bottom feeder in the ACC and failed to eclipse six conference wins in a season from 2007 to its second season under Brooks, a full decade of misery. From there, the Hokies consistently improved, experiencing near-immediate NIT success that included a championship appearance in 2018. 

And 15 years after their previous appearance, Brooks finally got them back into the NCAA Tournament, a historic feat that had fans ecstatic about the program’s immediate future. They came into this tournament mostly as underdogs, with a shortened schedule and rough start to conference play having them listed as a seven seed. 

They squeaked past No. 10-seeded Marquette before Baylor effectively blew them out in the second round. Despite the outcome, Mulkey told Brooks that he should be smiling under his mask after the contest, believing his program’s future was bright. 

“You saw talent. You saw raw talent, and you just knew they were going to get better,” Mulkey said referring to Elizabeth Kitley, Georgia Amoore and others. “When those young ladies were freshmen and sophomores, you saw the talent, so you knew if he could keep them together, which he did, that they were just going to be phenomenal.” 

That’s exactly what would happen.  

Through the next two seasons, Virginia Tech would exponentially improve, earning a No. 5 seed in the next tournament before exploding onto the 2022-23 scene as a championship contender. In just his seventh season with the Hokies, he earned them their first ACC Tournament title in program history, on top of attaining a one-seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. 

Its quick rise to championship contention paralleled Mulkey’s quick rebuild of LSU, who left Baylor following its eventual elimination in the 2021 Elite Eight. Each team drew Final Four expectations and effectively delivered, escaping tough environments to put themselves in position to etch themselves in their program’s histories. 

Neither program has ever advanced past the Final Four, with Virginia Tech’s previous peak being that Sweet 16 run it had back in 1999. The third matchup between these two coaches is the first to occur on equal footing and possesses the highest stakes by far. 

Though each has already made a historic run this tournament, just one victory would trump the importance of a win here: a national title.