After LSU’s 65-58 win over Kentucky, Kim Mulkey’s team drenched her with water.
At first, Mulkey didn’t know why; she thought her team was excited and proud after a big win. But when they were saying their post-game prayer, it all clicked.
“I look at two of my kids, and they have shirts on. And then it hit me, ‘Oh my Lord, that’s why y’all drenched me, 750 victories,’” Mulkey said.
For one of the most accomplished coaches in college basketball, the path of being a coach wasn’t one Mulkey always planned on going down.
After she earned her degree in business administration, she was approached by President of Louisiana Tech Dr. F. Jay Taylor while working on her master’s degree.
“I guess that man knew more [of] what I needed to do more than I did,” Mulkey said.
Mulkey started her career as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, a position she held from 1985-1996. She was promoted to associate head coach in 1996 and held that role until 2000.
Mulkey coached under Leon Barmore and had a helping hand in leading Louisiana Tech to seven Final Fours and a national championship in 1988.
But in 2000, Mulkey moved on from Louisiana Tech, a place she had been a crucial part of for 20 years. She took a coaching job at Baylor, this time as a head coach.
Baylor was a struggling program, fresh off a 7-20 season and last place in the Big 12. Mulkey not only launched that program into a powerhouse of women’s college basketball but also launched her own career as the creator of powerhouses.
Mulkey led her Baylor Bears to two consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances in her first two seasons in Waco, Texas. After a Sweet Sixteen appearance two seasons later, she and her team reached the mountaintop in 2005.
Baylor’s 2005 team finished with a 33-3 record and defeated Michigan State 84-62 to win her first title as a head coach.
Whether it was irony or foreshadowing, Baylor defeated LSU 68-57 to advance to the National Championship.
For the rest of her coaching career at Baylor, she didn’t miss an NCAA Tournament and was never eliminated in the first round.
In 2012, Baylor accomplished the ultimate feat. Not only did Mulkey win her second national title as a head coach, but they also did it undefeated.
Mulkey’s 2012 team was led by Britney Griner, the Naismith College Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
There arguably may not have been a more dominant team in women’s college basketball, as they won each of their NCAA Tournament games by double digits, including an 80-61 win over Notre Dame in the national championship.
After two Sweet Sixteen appearances and four Elite Eight appearances, Mulkey won her third national championship at Baylor. Her 2019 team finished with a 37-1 record and 18-0 in conference play.
But after COVID-19 canceled the postseason in 2020, and an Elite Eight appearance in 2021, Mulkey made a decision very similar to the one she made more than two decades prior.
This time, however, it brought her back to her home state.
“When you grow up, you don’t forget where you come from,” Mulkey said when introduced as LSU’s head coach. “It’s so unbelievably comfortable for me to come back to my roots.”
LSU finished the 2021 season with a 9-13 record, finishing eighth in the SEC. Mulkey took the vacancy after Nikki Fargas resigned from the Tigers head coaching role after 10 years.
Before we knew it, another powerhouse was created.
In her first season in Baton Rouge, Mulkey led LSU to a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament, finishing with a 26-6 record and second place in the SEC.
Many thought the Tigers were a few years away from the ultimate goal.
“It doesn’t happen overnight. Give it time, but I can assure you that’s what I came here to do,” Mulkey said.
But Mulkey did the unexpected.
In 2023, history was made, as Mulkey and her team won a national championship in just her second season at LSU.
“With about a minute and 30 to go, I couldn’t hold it, I got very emotional,” Mulkey said after the victory. “I don’t know if it’s the mere fact that we’re doing this in the second year that I’m home, I don’t know if it was the fact that I am home, I don’t know if it was looking across there at my daughter and my grandchildren. I don’t know what it was, but I lost it.”
In a team led by Angel Reese, Alexis Morris and Flau’jae Johnson, Mulkey put the nation on notice and has put the Tigers in the national conversation ever since.
Now, with 750 wins, four national championships, and 22 NCAA Tournament appearances, here we stand.
But between the surplus of wins, championships, and awards, it was never about any of them for Mulkey. To Mulkey, it’s about coaching great players, and that’s who she accredits for her success.
“You don’t win games and championships without great players,” Mulkey said. “They try their best to make players believe in what they’re selling, and you might tweak something in the middle of the game, but at the end of the day, you do not win anything without great players.”
Whether it’s a great coach making great players or great players making a great coach, Mulkey’s impact on college basketball is undeniable.
The quest to make that impact even more heard doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
