Kim Mulkey's Take: LSU Women's Basketball's NCAA Tournament Schedule and Bracket

Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers will host No. 15 Jacksonville in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening at the Pete Maravich Center with March Madness arriving in Baton Rouge.

The LSU/Jacksonville winner will face the winner of No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 10 Villanova on Sunday with Mulkey and Co. eyeing another Sweet 16 run under her watch.

What did LSU's decision-maker say on Thursday prior to the Tigers' 2026 NCAA Tournament run?

Kim Mulkey's Take: LSU's Tourney Chances

Q. (Off mic) we know how important guard play is. You have a little experience in this tournament. What do you need your post players to do? What do you need, in general, to make a deep run in the tournament from that part of it?

KIM MULKEY: I'll give a general statement about post play without being specific on who we would have to play in the tournament. A lot of coaches believe it's the guards' time to shine in postseason.

I go back to thinking about my own career in coaching. I don't think I've ever won a national championship without great post play.

What is great post play? You've got to have post touches. I'm not going to tell you that they're going to be your leading scorer or one of your best players, but you have to have post touches. The men may be a little different.

If I didn't coach teams that had posts, then I may not say that. But going all the way back to my playing days, my coaching days, we always recruit good posts. And I think perimeter are even better when you have good post play or post touches.

Q. Can you just talk about, (indiscernible) this deep you've never had since you've been here, and how even the freshmen, everybody has kind of like a specific role and they don't really wander outside that. How much does the bench meant to you this year because you have a scoring punch off the bench?

KIM MULKEY: Well we do you guys have written about it a lot, how much we score with our players coming off our bench. I can only start five. So I have to make that decision. I don't really like using the word "bench" because I remember when I played I came off the bench and I never liked that. I'm as good as those out there on the floor. She just has to pick five at a time.

That's what my approach is. And depending on what we need when I start substituting, I'm confident in all of them that have seen the significant minutes this year.

Sometimes in a program like ours, and a lot of programs that are elite, freshmen usually have to learn new roles and wait their turn. This freshman group didn't. They're significantly affecting our team from the time they got here.

They're very confident. They're producing. Some took a little longer. Like Bella Hines. I mean, I don't hesitate. Bella just kept coming on and getting stronger and stronger throughout the season.

The freshman group, they've lived up to their billing.

LSU Tigers Basketball. — Courtesy of LSU Tigers Women's Basketball.

Q. You talked about post play's important, but your trio of guards, especially Lay, Mikaylah and Flau'Jae, how important and impactful do you think that they're going to need to be to go further in this tournament?

KIM MULKEY: Well, not just those three. Jada Richard, there's a young lady that didn't get many minutes last year and look at the impact she's had this year as our point guard.

So certainly they have to play good. And the good thing is we have that bench. One may have a good game, and okay, then the other one may not be. Okay, let me try somebody else.

They all bring different things, different styles a little bit. They all can score the ball. That's for sure. Jada can score the ball as good as any point guard I've had.

But sometimes I tell her, do we really need that from you? Let that happen. You don't have to make that happen. Let that happen.

But I think you see quickness, obviously, with Fulwiley. You better not blink because you may see her do something you've never seen on a basketball floor. Flau'Jae, you leave her open, she's going to hit most of the shots. Mikaylah, just Mikaylah can just play so many positions for you. One of the best mid-range shooters. But that's not all she does.

And then Jada running your show out there and can score it if left open.

So we've got enough guards. Then with Bella coming on here at the end, we've got enough guards to be able to play them all.

Q. I talked to MiLaysia a little earlier just about her steal game. I know how much of a defense, but when you see her setting up an opponent, what do you see as the coach, and what do you like about the way she approaches her defense?

KIM MULKEY: She's tremendous on ball. A lot of teams we have faced, if they see MiLaysia's on the ball, they'll just have somebody else bring it up. So it's kind of like you kind of play this cat-and-mouse game, checkers or whatever, you think you've got MiLaysia on the point guard, the primary ball handler, then all of a sudden somebody else is doing it.

So I tell her don't worry about that because what you're doing is you're affecting them and what they normally are comfortable doing. So we'd love to have her on the ball as much as we possibly can because I think she just has tremendous hands, speed and quickness. Has gotten better on keeping people in front of her. Sometimes she gambles still. And I think she's learned throughout the course of the year how costly gambling can be.

You've got to know when to gamble and when not to gamble. And that goes also for when she has to guard on the wing versus at the top.

Courtesy of LSU Tigers Women's Basketball.

Q. Kaylin Rice, just her contributions to your team? Maybe she has not again the credit some people deserve and what is her role moving forward?

KIM MULKEY: Her role doesn't change. Kaylin, she does things that, Xs and Os-wise, that Coach Bob and I are -- I don't want to use the word "grooming" her -- but she grew up in my program at Baylor. She was a manager. Her daddy was a trainer in high school and moved over to the football side and became, you know, like a recruiting -- I guess you call it GM now. But he was on the staff for Art Briles at Baylor. She grew up in an athletic-minded family.

I have her hold my play card. I have her have it right there in every huddle. I'll turn to her and say, give me my card.

She does inbounds plays more. I like to not be stagnant and tell her, hey, they're playing a 1-3-1 right here underneath. You don't see that but from about four or five teams. In fact, Jacksonville will play some 1-3-1 underneath. And I want her to come up with some things.

Xs and Os, outstanding. She's behind the scenes, giving Bob what he needs in scouting reports, making suggestions in that area.

She's also our recruiting coordinator. That is her title. And she's very tedious and very specific with where coaches need to be, AAU tournaments, who we need to see.

So she's doing great. Not surprised. I knew when she was a manager, that young lady is going to be a very good coach someday.

Q. You've been asked about probably a thousand times at this point.

KIM MULKEY: Then don't ask. (Laughter). Don't ask the same questions. It's like a teacher that comes to class and for three straight days they're teaching the same lesson.

Q. It's a nuanced way of asking it, but how are you approaching the emotions of this being Flau'jae's last weekend?

KIM MULKEY: I don't mind you asking. I'm just picking on you.

I said this on senior night. People are like you're not very emotional. I said, "It's not her last game." I said, when I wrapped my head around the fact that that kid won't be in an LSU uniform again on the PMAC floor, then it will hit me.

And it actually did yesterday morning. We practiced yesterday morning, and I do my weekly radio show with Hester, and we were just talking. And this lump came in my throat, the thought that yeah, this is it.

And the challenge now is to make sure we do our part as fans, and that is get in the stands and watch somebody. That's your way of showing appreciation.

What is the appreciation for Flau'Jae that's any different than any player that I've ever coached? I love them all the same. But in this day and age, it's she stayed four years. I think Mikaylah Williams will be like that. She stayed four years.

She makes unbelievable money but not off of LSU. She gives back to the community and gives things that people don't know about.

She goes all over this campus -- everybody knows -- I don't think people even know her last name. You just know that's Flau'Jae. She's one of those young ladies, you don't have to know her last name. And then to think that she has two careers.

So those are the things that I don't know that we see the likes of very much in college athletics, really.

So that's why you get emotional about a Flau'Jae. And just her spirit, her soul, her joyous personality. She took a chance on LSU before this staff ever won big.

She's the first McDonald's All-American that I signed at LSU. And she deserves this place to be just packed.

It's always packed, but now that the NCAA has taken over and the tickets are a little bit higher priced, I tell the fans it's worth it. It's worth it.

Q. Do you still get a kick out of it, the tournament and everything? Maybe not like when you were 21 years old with the French braids playing point guard. But I mean, do you still get a kick out of March Madness, is it a similar thrill?

KIM MULKEY: Well, you handle each situation, each year, each team differently.

But the thing that never goes away is inside your soul, how excited you are for players that are doing it for the first time, for coaches that you may have on your staff that are doing it for the first time.

Just like anything in life, the very first time you do anything -- have your first child, some of us first marriage, okay -- it's different, right? But when you keep doing something consistently, it's rewarding.

But it's such a thrill for people in the locker room that are doing it for the first time. And no matter how many times I've been blessed to do it, if I lose that excitement, then, hey, get out, get out.

That's why you coach. You coach to get to the postseason. You coach to try to win championships. And this is a fun time of the year. And the thing I've always said, there's only going to be one happy program when this is all done. There's only going to be one happy program. And I've been blessed to be a part of that numerous times. So yeah, I still get a thrill. Isn't that an old song?

(Singing) "Do you still get a thrill when you see me coming up the hill? Do ya?" Okay? Go look that one up.

Q. How have you evolved as a coach since your first March Madness tournament, and how has women's basketball evolved?

KIM MULKEY: That could be a dissertation. You really got time for that?

You grow as a coach. You learn, man, I shouldn't have done that, but 10 years ago I did that and looking back, you go, hmm, I shouldn't have done that. You learn. You don't stay stagnant.

I've always been a coach that believed in being real and honest, but not to the point where you tear kids down. If I'm going to ask them to get on that floor and play hard, I'm going to give them everything I have on that sideline.

I can't play with them anymore. I used to get on that floor and play with them, but then I became real intelligent after about five years of that and said, nope, not doing that anymore.

The game has changed, as you guys know. I think, how have I stayed in it as long as I have when people my age are getting out? You have to evolve. You have to adapt. But you don't ever change certain things.

What are those certain things? You always hold young people accountable. You always discipline them. But yet you watch generations and you watch the NCAA and you watch the rules and you watch everything change, you observe and you go, okay, I can adapt to that, but I'll never change this.

And I think I still am one of the few my age that can do that.

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