BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU coach Kim Mulkey pledged that she wouldn’t let an impending Washington Post “hit piece” about her derail the defending national champion Tigers during the women’s NCAA tournament.
A dominant second-half surge on Sunday, led by star forward Angel Reese and dynamic guard Flau’jae Johnson, proved Mulkey right, at least for now.
Reese’s 20 points and 11 rebounds along with Johnson’s 21 points helped third-seeded LSU pull away for an 83-56 victory over No. 11 seed Middle Tennessee in the second round.
“Listen, man, we’re not going to let one sleazy reporter distract us from what we’re trying to do. Absolutely not,” Mulkey said. “My kids didn’t even know I said that yesterday. That team is not involved in this. They were in shock when they saw all that on the internet.”
Mulkey grabbed headlines on Saturday when she railed against The Washington Post and even threatened legal action. She did not mention the reporter by name, but award-winning Post reporter Kent Babb confirmed to The Associated Press on Saturday he is working on a profile of Mulkey. He declined further comment, and the Post also declined comment.
Reese said Sunday she didn’t know anything about that, but other teammates did.
“Coach Mulkey’s had our…
