LSU's Kim Mulkey Discusses Magnitude of the Moment, Team Leadership
Q. How much does experience play into the Final Four? You've been here many times with other teams. Virginia Tech, it's their first time. How much does that help dealing with not just on the court, but media, all the other events that go into the Final Four besides actually what happens on the court for an hour and a half?
KIM MULKEY: I'm the only one in our locker room that has done this, but I'm not going to shoot, dribble, pass, guard any of them. So it's not a matter of what I have done.
I look at it this way. It may be their first time to be in this situation, but they're all seniors. They're all seniors. It's the first time for my group to be in this situation as well, and we're not all seniors. So I think they have the edge on experience.
All I'm going to do is tweak a thing here or there throughout the course of the game, but it has nothing at all to do with coaching and how long a coach has been somewhere or how many times a coach has been somewhere.
Q. Over the past several years, obviously the women's Final Four has grown so much. In your opinion, what would you like to see the NCAA do to continue to grow it to make it even bigger?
KIM MULKEY: I'm not smart enough to give you those answers right now. I've seen things I agree with through the years, and I've seen things I don't agree with. But I can't invest much time in all of that. I just try to coach basketball.
I'll give opinions, certainly, but yeah, it's pretty neat that it's sold out. The cheapest ticket is more expensive than the cheapest ticket in Houston for Men's Final Four. I thought that was eye catching. And Angel is right, these young ladies and their families have to sit up high. I would like to see their families be able to sit down low and buy those tickets or save a section for the families where they can go hug their families afterwards.
The way it's set up now is you only get a certain allotment of tickets, and their families usually are not close to the court. What is it, $325, I think I was told, for them to go buy extra tickets for everybody because they're only allotted so many tickets. Maybe those are things that come to mind right off the top of my head.
Q. Having played Virginia Tech two years ago, as you prepare for them this week, are there certain ways you found Tech to be a tougher challenge this time around or a different kind of challenge this time around to prepare for?
KIM MULKEY: Well, heck yeah, I just told you, they're all seniors. They're battle tested. Now, I don't have the same team that I had at Baylor, so you can't compare that.
But they're seniors. They're experienced. They're on a roll. They're confident. They've been together a while now. He's a great coach, love him to death. Sure, they'll be nervous, but my team will be nervous too because they'll all be doing it -- both teams will be doing it for the first time.
Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about how Angel's been successful against all different types of defenses? I know you said earlier obviously Kitley is not just a low block player, but she's big. How Angel operates against those types of players versus maybe other types of defenses.
KIM MULKEY: Well, first of all, I don't know that Kitley will be guarding Angel, and nobody knows if Angel will be guarding Kitley.
Angel has been double-teamed. She is outstanding at passing out of the double-team and finding the open player. She has been guarded one-on-one by the bigger player. Angel is not a true back-to-the-basket player. She likes to take you off the dribble. Sometimes she tries to do too much, and I just tell her to relax. We'll find you on ball reversal.
I don't think Virginia Tech is the Kitley show or the Angel show. There's too many weapons around them. But Angel figures out a way to get in there and battle, rebounding. She gets a lot of her own misses, and she just is strong. She's very, very strong. Sometimes I forget how big Angel is until you stand next to her. She's a little bit bigger than you realize.
But it's not anything she hasn't seen. We know Kitley's going to block shots. She should. But it doesn't mean that we're going to change our approach on the offensive end because of size.
Q. Coach Mulkey, Lex has said she's shifted her focus. Many the games we've seen from Lex, when she doesn't shoot well, she's really able to clamp down defensively. What have you seen from her and especially the guard play that you know you will face from Virginia Tech?
KIM MULKEY: Alexis can hit big shots. She may go oh-fer for a while, but shoot it again, and she's going to hit the big three. Her speed and quickness is just an asset. She can get through screens, under screens, up screens. She just has that quickness about her.
The latter part of your question was? Well, she's faced a lot of great ones, so let's give some little props here to the SEC. There's a lot of great players in the SEC. There's a lot of great guards in the SEC.
I don't think she takes the approach -- I think that's probably why -- I'm not going to answer for your question a while ago, but she feels like she's good too. It's going to be a great matchup. I don't know that great players ever stop each other. They're all going to get what they need to get for their teams to be successful. I think always it's going to end up being somebody that's the unsung hero.
