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5 things to know about LSU coach Kim Mulkey, including her legendary stint at Baylor

Former Baylor Bears coach Kim Mulkey has led LSU to the NCAA Women’s Final Four in her second season coaching the LSU Tigers. Kim Mulkey, former Baylor coach and current LSU coach, has been named the new head coach of the Tigers since 2021. She began her college basketball career as a point guard and associate head coach at Louisiana Tech, winning two championships while playing and two NCAA Final Four titles. Mulkey and her team will be facing Virginia Tech next in the NCAA Final Eight. Her son Kramer Robertson, an MLB player who currently plays for the St. Louis Cardinals, was drafted by Baylor in the fourth round before bouncing to a couple of other teams before landing back in St Louis. After Brittney Griner was wrongfully detained in Russia over drug charges, Mulkey suggested that players should be able to participate in games even if they are infected with the coronavirus.

5 things to know about LSU coach Kim Mulkey, including her legendary stint at Baylor

Published : 12 months ago by Caleb Yum in Sports

Former Baylor coach Kim Mulkey shook Texas in 2021, announcing that she was returning to her home state of Louisiana to coach LSU.

Two years later and she has taken the Tigers to the NCAA Final Four after defeating Miami 54-42 in the Elite Eight. Mulkey and her team will be facing Virginia Tech next.

Here are 10 things to know about the former Baylor Bear.

Mulkey began her college basketball career as a point guard at Louisiana Tech, winning two championships while playing. She then began her coaching career as an assistant at Tech in 1985 and was promoted to associate head coach in 1996. While there, she posted a 430–68 record and advanced to seven Final Fours, winning an NCAA championship in 1988.

After her time at Tech, Mulkey left in 2000 to become the head coach for a Baylor program that finished 7–20 and last in the Big 12 Conference. The Bears had never made the tournament up to that point, but that would soon change with Mulkey’s arrival. In her first season, she took the Bears to their first NCAA tournament bid. They won their first NCAA Championship in 2005 against Micihigan State, making Mulkey the first woman to have won NCAA Division I basketball titles as a head coach and player.

Mulkey would win two more championships in her time there including a legendary season in 2012. Led Brittney Griner and Mulkey, the Bears took the college basketball season by storm, winning every single game and defeating Notre Dame for the title. No team in the tournament even came close to defeating them with a 59-47 win over No. 2 Stanford being the closest any team got. It was the first time in NCAA history that any team, man or woman, won 40 games in a season, though Connecticut matched them in 2014.

Mulkey is no stranger to unsavory media attention.

After leaving for the WNBA, Griner had a falling out with Baylor and Mulkey, who told her players not to be open about their sexuality. When Griner was later wrongfully detained in Russia over drug charges, Mulkey was one of the few among the women’s basketball community that did not show open support.

During the Art Briles situation, Mulkey said “if somebody around you and they ever say ‘I will never send my daughter to Baylor, you knock them right in the face.”

If that wasn’t enough, Mulkey also suggested in 2021 that players should be able to participate in games even if they’re infected with the coronavirus.

“I don’t think my words matter, but after the games today, tomorrow, there’s four teams left I think on the men’s side and the women’s side,” Mulkey said, unprompted, after her team lost to UConn 69-67 in the Elite Eight. “They need to dump the COVID testing.”

Mulkey has recently gone viral for her creative fashion tastes at this year’s tournament. Tacky? Bold? Tasteful? Whatever anyone’s opinions, Mulkey has been wearing her outfits with confidence.

Mulkey’s son is Kramer Robertson, an MLB player who currently plays for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was initially drafted by them in the fourth round before bouncing to a couple of other teams before landing back in St. Louis.

Her daughter Makenzie Fuller played for Baylor from 2010-14 before joining the staff as an Assistant Director of (Women’s) Basketball Operations.

Find more Baylor coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Find more college sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.


Topics: Louisiana State University, Academia

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