GREENVILLE, S.C. — Before LSU coach Kim Mulkey walked into the locker room to deliver her usual pregame talk, associate head coach Bob Starkey pulled her aside.
Starkey an LSU legend in his own right as the coach who led the Tigers to the 2007 Final Four as an interim head coach, had an idea. He thought back to his second year as Gary Blair’s assistant at Texas A&M. On the first day of the 2013 SEC tournament, Blair used a Sharpie permanent marker to draw bands across players’ ring fingers. It was a placeholder, Blair told the Aggies, until they could wear the real rings. Texas A&M went on that season to win its first tournament title, the first championship ring for those players.
Starkey thought that idea would land with LSU’s players. So just as Mulkey was about to finish her pre-game talk — discussing the team’s need to fulfill its five ideals of focus, execution, leadership, defense and rebounding — he interrupted her and said he needed to speak to the team. He pulled out a Sharpie and went around the locker room, drawing rings on the fingers of every player and staff member.
“I said, ‘This is just the loaner for now, but I want you to remember what you’re playing for,’” Starkey said. “‘If you get tired, if you get frustrated, you get a bad call…
