During her introductory press conference on April 21, 2021, Kim Mulkey told those in attendance to take a second to look around the room.
“I made a statement and asked everybody to turn around and look at those Final Four banners,” she recounted. “Nowhere on there did it say ‘national champions,’ and that’s what I came home to do.”
Even though her time at Baylor was wildly successful, Mulkey thought it was time to go home, back to where it all started for her. When she took the job, she knew she wanted it to bring the first basketball national title — men’s or women’s — to the school, but she didn’t know how soon it would actually happen.
“Are we ahead of schedule?” Mulkey said in a press conference before the title game. “I think it’s obvious we’re ahead of schedule. We’re sitting here playing for the national championship.”
But there is no specific timeline when it comes to success, and the Tigers proved it by lifting the 2023 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament trophy after a 102-85 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Tigers started the season with a 23-0 record, the longest streak in program history. There were those who said LSU’s strength of schedule was weak, but the Tigers paid no…
