DALLAS — Since 2000, when Kim Mulkey first became a head coach, she has slept with a small notepad and pen next to her bed. In the middle of the night, whenever an idea strikes, she rolls over and, without turning on the light, jots down whatever it was that woke her — she wants to try a new out-of-bounds play, she should check in with the janitors about the mops, her roof really ought to be power-washed.
“I’m afraid if I sleep on it,” she says, “I’ll wake up and forget.”
In the morning, she rolls over to check her list and sends text messages — the first task of the day — to the appropriate parties to make sure everything gets done.
But in recent years, hotels have stopped stocking rooms with notepads and pens (an issue that doesn’t thrill Mulkey), and since she doesn’t feel like traveling with her own, she just uses her phone and sends out texts in the middle of the night.
Saturday night, on the eve of the national title game, she sent a few text messages to her coaches’ group chat: Tell me to visit with Sa’Myah Smith so I can remind her that she can be very impactful in this game. A few hours later: I need y’all to remind me to look at the 3-2 and extend it if we can’t guard her.
The “her” in question was Caitlin Clark, the national player of…
