Kim Mulkey's Take: LSU Women's Basketball Reaches Elite Eight for Third Straight Year

No. 3-seeded LSU pulled out a narrow 70-63 Sweet 16 victory over the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Friday night in Spokane (Wash.) to clinch an Elite Eight berth for the third consecutive season.

Kim Mulkey and the Tigers will square off against the UCLA Bruins in the Elite Eight on Sunday for a chance to punch their ticket to the Final Four.

Mulkey's Thoughts: LSU Heads to Elite Eight

Q. Third straight Elite 8. What's this particular one mean to you with this group of girls?

KIM MULKEY: I think there's five in our locker room that have never been to a Sweet 16, so they certainly haven't been to an Elite 8, and that's what excites you as a coach, is having players experience something for the first time. And you don't take it for granted. You just don't.

We made plays down the stretch. We made some bad plays down the stretch, but we made plays down the stretch to pull it out and win, and it means we did some good stuff.

Q. What did you see on Kailyn's block? She said she was getting cooked, but that seemed to really flip the energy for you all.

KIM MULKEY: Well, I'll tell you this great story about KG. When she came to visit, we brought her in out of the portal, and Coach Starkey and I sat down in my office. And if you know anything about me, I'm going to be real and honest with you, and sometimes people can't handle the honest truth.

But I feel like if you bring in transfers, you better be real honest with them and tell them ahead of time what your expectations are.

And our entire -- not entire conversation, but the majority of our conversation was defense. We had watched her on film and told her the way she performed defensively wasn't going to fly at LSU. You're never going to see the floor. So if you commit to defense, we know what can you do offensively. But I'll never forget this.

This is one of those moments in your coaching career. She sat up in her chair and she leaned over toward me and she said, And Coach, now -- now, I'm just going to be honest. I said, Well, that would be a good place to start. She said, I've never worried about the defensive end because I've always thought I'm going to get it back for you on the offensive end.

Now, I know that's the mentality of probably every player, but for her in that moment to say that allowed me to let her know, You're going to have to play defense here.

And to watch her on-ball defense every day in practice get better and better and then to watch her -- like she said, she was getting beat off the dribble there, make a defensive play, it's only fitting that we talk about that in this game.

Q. You guys have been in a lot of close games this season. You haven't won all of 'em, but you've won most of them. Curious, is there something within teams that are able to close out those close games late, like, an edge or a mentality or someone like Aneesah who is taking it personally? Like, what's the thread through those teams?

KIM MULKEY: This has been a team that's won a lot of close games, I mean, from the very beginning of the season. I think part of it is seniors, another part of it is leaders, your leadership, your captains, and the third part of it is competitors. Got some competitors.

And it was really hard for us not to have Flau'jae on that floor, but she was seeing double. She got hit in the eye area, and they wouldn't let her go back in. And she continued in the timeouts to point things out on the coaching board and to say things to her teammates, and that's a sign of a leader.

So I think all these close games, it benefits us to have been in them. I don't like them particularly. I would like to relax on that sideline and let them, you know, relax, but when you get to this level, there's too many good teams.

Q. I notice that after the game, you spent some time with the NC State players and kind of comforted them. I was wondering why you thought that was important to do, and if possible, could you share some of the messages you gave 'em?

KIM MULKEY: Well, one of 'em, I know personally. Maddie Cox. Her older sister won a national championship for me at Baylor. So I've watched that young lady since she was -- Maddie was 10, 12 years old. And she had a good game today. I know that family very well.

And what I said to her was, This is the part of the game none of us like, Maddie. Get your head up. She took it hard. Saniya Rivers, I told her what a great player she was.

I've been through that line when you've lost. And I think the world of Wes Moore. There's certain coaches in your profession you don't like coaching against because either they're really, really good, and he is, as a coach, but he's a really good man, and I just told him that. I said, You're just a good man, Wes, and you're a heck of a coach.

Q. This is Sa'Myah's second straight game with 20 points, 10 rebounds. Is it safe to say that it's a big 4 now? Is this something that you're looking for her to display from here on out?

KIM MULKEY: I would say Sa'Myah is playing very confident, and Sa'Myah is quietly just doing her job and somewhat doing everybody else's job too. When we get beat tonight on dribble penetration, and they would come off that screen at the top, she altered shots, she blocked shots, she got rebounds.

She's just becoming more comfortable. She's had two knee surgeries, and she is coming off that, and it takes time.

And I think with Sa'Myah, you get a clearance from a doctor that you're good to go, but it's above here (indicating), it's above here that you have to take your time and let it happen, and I just think she's just playing very, very good basketball right now.

Q. Aneesah keeping y'all in the game, the performance. She's been so reliable, but she was extraordinary tonight.

KIM MULKEY: Well, I was actually disappointed she didn't have 20 rebounds (smiling). No (laughing).

That kid's a -- she's just -- she just works. She's an undersized post player in their battling bigger girls, demanding the ball, guarding on the perimeter. We only hit three threes tonight, so for you WNBA scouts, I think she lit it up from out there.

I think they forget she can shoot the 3 ball because that's all she did when she was at DePaul. But for us, it's not needed. So when she hit those two threes, I thought, okay, Nees has got it going on tonight.

Now, she missed some, but she just is one you want on your team. She just is one of those kids that she plays that hard in practice every day. Sometimes you put her on the side because it's like Nees, this is one of those days where you can take a deep breath.

Q. Did you get worried about Flau'Jae's status potentially going forward? Is she going to be evaluated at all with the vision?

KIM MULKEY: I haven't been told she can't play. I didn't see it. I don't know if she got poked in the eye, hit in the -- I don't know. I just know I was getting ready to put her back in the game, and I turned around, and they said they won't let her go back in the game because she's seeing double, like double vision a little bit.

So we just went with Mjracle defensively and KG offensively. But I haven't asked. They haven't come up to me, you know, all worried or anything like that. So, yeah, I anticipate she will be good to go.

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