Kim Mulkey’s LSU team may be heading home, but the longtime coach doesn’t plan on going anywhere.
Mulkey, 63, addressed potential retirement rumors after the second-seeded Tigers’ heartbreaking 87-85 loss to No. 3 seed Duke at the buzzer at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Friday night.
A testy Mulkey didn’t sound like she would be done anytime soon after her fifth season in Baton Rouge came to an end while referencing rumors of her exit.
“I’m not retiring. Do I look that bad?” she told reporters. “I don’t know where that came from. I’m only 63. And I’m healthy, with a few stents in my heart. Doctor says I’m good to go … As we get older, as coaches, they want to say, ‘How much longer is she going to be in the game?’ I’m going to be in this game unless LSU fires me, OK, until I can’t put a product on that floor that’s competitive, or my health fails me.”
The Tigers turned in another fine season under Mulkey, going 29-6 and reaching as high as No. 5 in the AP polls.
She has made the NCAA Tournament for 23 straight seasons, including all five with LSU, while winning a national championship in 2023 and adding two other trips to the Elite Eight.
Her resume speaks for itself as the only person in the women’s game to win a national title as a player, and as an assistant coach.
“Put it out there,” she said. “Not retiring.”
Mulkey didn’t add another title this year because Duke’s Ashlon Jackson (19 points) beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer while trailing, 85-84.
“Nothing I say is going to make them feel better in the moment,” Mulkey said. “The sun will come up tomorrow and you’re going to have wonderful memories from your time at LSU. And then you go and you hug each one of them and you let them cry … I don’t find that a bad thing.”
Mulkey will have some work to do with her staff next season, with assistant Gary Redus II already gone as he became the head coach at Rutgers, taking fellow assistant Daphane Mitchell to Piscataway with him to try to help turn around the Scarlet Knights.
Star Flau’jae Johnson is graduating and heading to the WNBA draft but a good portion of this year’s team could return, including leading scorer MiLaysia Fulwiley.
It should give Mulkey and the players a good chance to erase Friday night’s heartbreak.
Mulkey sounded like she wants to get things set with her staff and roster as soon as possible.
“I plan to hire two coaches quickly. I plan to get in the portal and get two or three more players and take a little time off, go see my grandchildren, who actually flew in and got in late and didn’t even see the game, but I’ll get to visit with them tonight in the hotel,” Mulkey said. “But there is no retiring.”
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