The words on the sweater Kim Mulkey wore for Friday’s NCAA tournament opener against Hawaii read “Kiss me I’m a queen,” a reference she said not to herself but her clothier.
Nonetheless, it was pretty appropriate, especially on St. Patrick’s Day. LSU’s coach is one of the queens of women’s basketball, no doubt. Though the way her Tigers shot the ball out of the gate against the Rainbow Wahine, maybe a hug would have been a good idea.
For her part, Mulkey, who said “give me break” Thursday in reference to her team’s chances of going all the way to the Final Four, was pretty positive. She knows as well as anyone the value of an NCAA opening win, and she knows how to get them. This was the 20th straight NCAA tournament first-round win of her career. The only time she ever lost one was her first year at Baylor. Amazing.
The wins, as Mulkey knows just as well, only get tougher from here. And sizing up LSU’s 73-50 win over feisty but outmatched Hawaii compared to Michigan’s 71-59 win over UNLV in Friday’s opener at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center tells you one thing:
The Tigers are going to have to play better to make it to the tournament’s second weekend.
“Did we play bad?” Mulkey asked, when this reporter asked her if she thought her team would need to play better to keep playing.
No, not bad. Not at all. Defense was good, holding Hawaii to 30.8% shooting for the game, holding the visitors to seven first-quarter points (fewest ever allowed by LSU in any quarter of NCAA tournament ball) and forcing 21 turnovers. Conversely LSU, which can turn the ball over at a prodigious rate at times, only coughed it up 10.
And there was the play of All-American forward Angel Reese, who if not the queen of LSU basketball is the princess. One who has rapidly established herself as one of the greatest players in program history.
Friday was another chapter in Reese’s brilliant season as she scored 34 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. She tied the school record for most points in an NCAA tournament game set in 2001 by all-time great, Marie Ferdinand, against Purdue (please don’t tell Purdue; they’ve got enough issues after its men lost to FDU on Friday night). She is also, according to the Southeastern Conference, the first SEC women’s player with 30-plus points and 15 rebounds in an NCAA game … this century.
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