LSU Women’s Basketball Head Coach Kim Mulkey spoke to the media after the Tigers were revealed as be the No. 2 seed in the Sacramento 1 Regional in the NCAA tournament, marking their highest seeding of the Mulkey era.

Mulkey acknowledges this accomplishment as she says this is progress for the team from previous years.

“This is our fifth year doing this and this is the highest seed that we ever had at LSU,” Mulkey said. “If we couldn’t get a one seed, you’re the first two seeds and that’s progress. That shows you’re heading and the trajectory is up. The trajectory is already up when you win the National Championship.”

The Tigers will host No. 15 seed Jacksonville in the first round. Heading into the upcoming game, they’ll be missing two coaches. Gary Redus, former LSU assistant coach, has taken the head coach job at Rutgers University and Assistant Coach Daphne Mitchell is following his lead.

Both coaches won’t be accompanying LSU for the NCAA Tournament, but Mulkey doesn’t expect their departure to affect the team as they prepare for the upcoming matchup.

“Daphne and Gary are our recruiters,” Mulkey said. “I have one person that does scout reports and that’s Bob Starkey. So, Bob will do what he normally does, and on the floor coaching, you’ll just move Seimone to fill in for Gary on passing drills and probably move Joe down here with Bob. We’ll just have two chairs they won’t be in, but as far as responsibilities, no.”

With half of the Tiger’s line-up being freshmen, the main point going into the NCAA tournament is preparation, but because LSU is in the SEC, Mulkey hopes that playing those teams has prepared them enough.

“I hope the SEC has prepared them,” Mulkey said. “You look into the arenas that we’ve gone into and how large they are, but I think just going on the road for the SEC Tournament, I think it prepares them for the postseason because we’re going to go and play and we don’t know how many are going to be in that arena.”

Since Mulkey’s been a head coach, LSU’s made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament for five consecutive years and this stat means something to Mulkey as she’s excited for what’s to come.

“It’s hard to believe I’ve done it this many years, but it’s over half my teams first time and you think about their excitement more than what you feel and I’m excited and I’ll always be excited as long as I have a breathe to cheer, pump my fists and can do things because I just don’t take it for granted.”

“It’s work to maintain something. It’s work to build something. Just don’t let people forget how hard it is. It is hard and it’s darn hard to win championships.”

LSU will take on Jacksonville to see who will move onto the second round for the NCAA tournament. The winner out of those two will face the winner of No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 10 Villanova.