The numbers behind LSU’s national women’s basketball championship are positively jaw-dropping.
Nine new players. A coach, Kim Mulkey, in just her second year with the program who became, with LSU’s huge win Sunday, the first ever to win the women’s national title at multiple schools.
The most points a team has ever scored in a women’s Final Four game (102), the most points by a team in a half (59) and the most points by a player in a quarter (19). An individual record — this one for double-doubles in a season — set during that championship game by star forward Angel Reese.
And following a combined nine trips to the Final Four — all ending in semifinal defeats — the first NCAA crown for a basketball team, women’s or men’s, in LSU’s history.
As impressive as those numbers are, the Tigers’ championship run added up to much, much more.
Last weekend’s Final Four games in Dallas — a heart-stopping come-from-behind semifinal win over Virginia Tech Friday, and then Sunday’s finale, a dramatic drubbing of an Iowa team led by the formidable Caitlin Clark — were all any Tiger fan could have wanted on the court.
And, as with all the best sports stories, the team’s triumphant season transcended the games and tapped into the human condition, as fans (longtime and newcomers alike) met an unforgettable cast of characters who stole our hearts and lifted our spirits.
There was the charismatic Reese, setting records on the court and unapologetically owning her image and brand as “Bayou Barbie.” There was Alexis Morris, who overcame punishing self-doubt and adversity (she told Sports Illustrated “I am the comeback kid”) at the side of her once-and-current coach. There was Flau’jae Johnson, charting a genre-busting path through both sports and music. There was previously unsung Jasmine Carson, proving spectacularly ready when her moment unexpectedly arrived Sunday — she hit five consecutive 3-pointers, made two more shots from the field and hit both her free throws, all in the first half. Carson ultimately led her teammates in scoring with 22 points.
Pick your plot line, as many a young girl in Louisiana did, and there was a protagonist to cheer.
Presiding over it all from the sidelines was Mulkey, the Louisiana native and three-time championship coach at Baylor, who’d scanned the rafters at the PMAC at her first LSU news conference, noted the absence of a first-place banner, and announced that she was there to earn one.
“Final Four … Final Four … Final Four … Final Four … Final Four,” she said back in 2021. “Nowhere on there does it say national champion. That’s what I came here to do.”
Mulkey’s eye-popping wardrobe, with its pink fringes and bright sparkles, inevitably became a story of its own. But it was in no way the story.
Her real narrative, built on hard work and unshakeable determination, centered on how she found, attracted and assembled such disparate parts to build — and lead — an inspiring whole.
Yes, hopes and expectations were high when Mulkey arrived at LSU, but no one (except, perhaps, Mulkey herself) thought she would deliver on her promise in just two seasons.
Her confidence was contagious. The players believed in themselves, said so out loud and delivered in front of the world.
In doing so, they made good on their coach’s promise, joined the exalted ranks of Louisiana sports legends — and treated fans to a storybook ending they’ll be reliving for years to come.
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