Everything Kim Mulkey Said Following LSU's Friday Night Victory
Alexis Morris and Flau'jae addressed the media following their quarterfinals victory over Georgia in the SEC Tournament.
Head Coach Kim Mulkey fielded questions following the two.
Q: For either of y'all, you had a season-high in 3-pointers tonight. What was clicking on those outside shots for y'all tonight?
ALEXIS MORRIS: Sharing the ball, make sure we kept our offense moving, and just finding one another. We trusted in each other, we trusted in our shot, and we came out confident tonight.
FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: I think that's it, making the extra pass, passing up a good shot for a great one. I mean, we all been in the gym workin', so it just showed when the lights turned on. Q. Going off that, Alexis, you got three right away. Was that -- did you feel like coming in that you were in that kind of groove immediately? ALEXIS MORRIS: This is my last year. It's do or die for me. I just came out just -- I just took what the defense gave me and fortunately enough I was able to hit them tonight. Q. Flau'jae, would you say this is your best game in the purple and gold so far? FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Nah, because I made a lot of mistakes on defense. But it was my best shooting performance. I wouldn't day my best game. But I was feeling it tonight, I ain't gonna lie. I was flying tonight. Ate those on up.
Q. Congratulations on the win you guys, and welcome to Greenville. For you two, for you to be the senior and you to be SEC Freshman of the Year, I think everybody got that memo today. Talk about the connection that you two have just for you to be the leader for her and for you to look up to her.
FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: She just got this energy, you know what I'm saying, that you want to follow. Every rep, she is going to go 100%. And when I see that, I'm like, okay, now this what it take. I remember in the summer used to wake up super early, just go ball handling ands stuff. I used to see how long she would be ball handling, how hard she be going. I was like, Oh, my God. I got a long way to go, you feel me? But just seein' that and how hard she go, that just inspires me to go that hard. So when you really puttin' in the work like it's really gonna show, you feel me? And it just did tonight.
ALEXIS MORRIS: Flau'jae is hungry and a raw talent, and I think you all can see that. She is not your typical freshman. She has been starting for us all year and she is special. As me being a leader I have to lead by example, and as she said, I have to go hard in practice and practice my reps. My body language, sometimes when I'm behaving a certain way and I see Flau'jae I see she is looking up to me, so I've got to be a positive role models for everybody.
Q. What did you think about that delay? It's supposed to be an indoor sport. Weather is not supposed to bother us.
FLAU'JAE JOHNSON: Alexis was like, stay locked in, you know what I'm saying? Because we in the locker room joking and was like, no, lock in. Lay down. Get off your feet. That was crazy though.
Q. Kim, to get the balance -- when you get that kind of scoring from several players like that that, what do you think that makes your team in terms of being hard to beat? Would you have figured, especially given the way the first Georgia game went -- maybe you didn't want to, but you ended up being able to rest Angel but not a bad thing.
Mulkey: To answer the first part of your question, I think any coach will tell you when you can have four or five in double figures you're going to win a lot of basketball games. I think the second part of your question was how close it was. We went into overtime at our place. We missed 17 free throws in that game; we had 18 turnovers. We had 16 turnovers tonight but we only had 6 at halftime. We hit shots. The perimeter hit shots. I would have to go back and look at a film and ask why we didn't get more post touches, but your two starting post players scored double figures. They battled in there. I thought Kateri Poole was the hero tonight. I thought her minutes on the defensive end of the floor were solid. She ended up with 5 assists and 5 turnovers, but she penetrated, found open shots, plays, and found open players, and consequently they got easier, wide-open looks. I thought we attacked the zone the same way. I can't tell you we put in -- maybe some quick hitters we put in. The press, they went to the press and made us look bad there in the fourth quarter, and they were trapping. I would normally not call a timeout with seven tenths of a second, but I wasn't going to let that kid have another turnover. Most people don't trap when the game is over, but she did, and I chose to call the timeout right there. I know people are going, why are you doing that?
Q. Coach, what did you see from Flau'jae tonight?
Mulkey: I saw a relaxed kid. I saw a confident player. Her first few shots, when they went in, you just saw a kid go back to relaxing a little bit. Flau'jae is an entertainer. She is an entertainer both in her music and she is an entertainer on that floor, and she is a happy kid. Maybe the last month, couple, two three weeks in February, she didn't play happy. She was mad at herself about this or mad at somebody about that. Just relax. You're Freshman of the Year in this league. I told her that before she got the award. I think maybe she is just relaxed now and hit those shots and became confident. But she rebounded for us. She got a lot of rebounds for us down on the other end. She is a good player.
Q. Kim, Angel sitting out most of the fourth quarter, she seemed rather emotional, like her emotions were running high. Was that a decision by you to say you just need to calm down?
Mulkey: No. She got popped in the eye and she lost part of her eyelash and her eye was extremely irritated and red. I don't know if that affected her. Then she picked up the fouls and got in foul trouble. So I just think she just couldn't get in a groove. But that happens. I think she got her own misses a lot and got her shot blocked and then would get fouled. I think the one thing she is so good at that you didn't see much of tonight is going to get other people's misses. But when you shoot like we did, there is not many to go get. I watched her some just stand instead of flying in there. Now, a zone can create that, somewhat, because it's crowded in there. Angel Reese is a beast. Q. Could you speak a little bit to what Georgia did well tonight? I know that y'all won handily, but what do you think they did nicely? COACH MULKEY: Never been asked that before. First of all, I love Katie. I think she brought all those young ladies with her from Central Florida, and it hit me when I looked at the scouting report, they've been together a long time. That's why they're so darn good in their matchup. I thought they create a lot of turnovers. You don't think of a zone defense -- and she won't call it a zone; I do call it a zone -- it's the matchup. They create a lot of turnovers. You think you're going to get the ball to a post or perimeter player there at the foul line area and they kinda just reach and knock it away. I think their turnovers are legit. I think the ones they create are really, really active. They're very active. I thought they played very physical tonight. They rebound hard for their size. You know, they're not 6'5", 6'7", anything like that, but they rebound extremely hard.
