Kim Mulkey is often difficult to fully understand but her not-so-veiled shot at Caitlin Clark was pretty loud and clear. It had to do with the difference in how LSU plays when compared to Iowa.The Tigers moved to 16-1 with a 17-point win over the Texas A&M Aggies on Thursday night. All five players in the starting lineup reached double digits scoring. Aneesah Morrow and Angel Reese both dropped 20+.
It continues to be a trend for Mulkey’s team. There is a lot of talent on the LSU women’s basketball roster.
Hailey Van Lith, Reese and Morrow are superstars. Flau’jae Johnson is on the cusp of superstardom and continues to step up when her teammates are having off nights. Mikayla Williams, a five-star recruit, is starting to blossom into a star as well.
They distribute the ball well and everybody gets theirs.
Despite the victory on Thursday, Mulkey was frustrated with the amount of points allowed. Especially after she subbed the bench during the late minutes.
When asked about her team’s performance in postgame, Mulkey was focused on efficiency. She wants her team to be more selective and smart with their shots.
Most importantly, the 61-year-old head coach wants the Tigers to keep distributing the ball and share the wealth. Mulkey spoke to the continuity within her program and turned some heads with her answer.
Nobody’s taking 40 shots a game like you see across the country. We’re not that kind of team.
Here she is in her own words:
Kim Mulkey did not address Caitlin Clark by name. However, her comments were not particularly subtle.
She took a shot at other programs that largely rely on one single player. Iowa is one of them.
With that said, if Mulkey was talking about Clark, her comments missed the mark.
There is no doubt that the Hawkeyes lean on their future No. 1 overall WNBA Draft pick. Clark is a generational talent. They often live and die by her ability to score. She leads the nation in attempts per game.
But it works!
Clark makes 48% of her 22 shots per game and has the most made three-pointers in the country while also averaging 7.7 assists per game. That number ranks seventh nationally.
In addition, Iowa as a team ranks No. 7 in the country in terms of assists. LSU ranks No. 26.
Mulkey and the Tigers beat Clark and the Hawkeyes in the national championship last year. A rematch would be fun. Especially after the pretty clear jab on Thursday night!
GENO AURIEMMA CLAIMS BEST UCONN TEAMS WERE ‘AHEAD OF OUR TIME’ IN RESPONSE TO NEW NCAA LANDSCAPE
UConn women’s basketball remains an iconic program, and head coach Geno Auriemma believes some of his former squads would have been far more popular had they competed in the current era.
UConn women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma claimed this week that his most dominant teams were ahead of their time.
He also suggested that former players such as Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore would have reached the level of fame of active NCAA stars like Caitlin Clark if they were born later.
Still, Auriemma gave props to the current student-athletes who have helped raise the profile of women’s basketball beyond anything seen before. The coach, who earned his 1,200th career victory this year, said the brighter spotlight was long overdue.
“That’s how you build a national brand like we’ve have for so long, and we were willing to go to any part of the country to play anybody anywhere to spread that brand,” Auriemma said via CT Insider.
“So, yeah, we were a little bit ahead of our time. And people now are starting to experience what we experienced for all those years. And they’re also starting to appreciate more how difficult it is to be in that situation.”
Auriemma led back-to-back undefeated seasons on two occasions and went unbeaten six times overall, helping the Huskies become a nationally revered powerhouse. UConn went 78-0 between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 campaigns.
The school accounts for 66 percent of all the undefeated seasons in NCAA women’s basketball history, a remarkable accomplishment underlining its historic dominance.
However, rival programs have seemingly caught up with UConn on the court and in the public eye.
By some measures, including win percentage, this is the weakest team Auriemma has coached in at least 20 years relative to other national title contenders.
Some of the squad’s struggles are the result of poor injury luck, yet even at full strength, this season’s Huskies likely wouldn’t have drawn the record-breaking attention of Caitlin Clark and Iowa or Angel Reese and LSU.
That’s not to say UConn isn’t popular – with the help of star guard Paige Bueckers, the team retains national relevance and could rebound in a big way next season. But even Auriemma has acknowledged throughout 2023-24 that the playing field has become more difficult for him than before.
“It’s obviously been a long time coming,” he added on the rise of women’s basketball beyond being a niche source of entertainment. “When we traveled back before all this other stuff, the crowds that Maya [Moore] generated, that [Breanna Stewart] generated – those guys didn’t have necessarily as much of a benefit as these kids do with social media.
“And now it’s just been magnified, and it’s the right kind of kids with the right kind of personalities, and everything that goes into being popular and being impactful to a bunch of kids. And the fact that the coverage is just so much more widespread than it’s ever been, they’re all taking advantage of it. God bless them.”