DALLAS — Former LSU women’s basketball player Erica White lives here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, so she was always planning to attend this year’s Women’s Final Four at the American Airlines Center.
What she wasn’t planning on was the broad smile she would be wearing leaving the arena Thursday in her gold LSU T-shirt after watching the Tigers practice for their first Final Four appearance since she played in the last one in 2008.
“Once we made it I was completely excited,” said White, as she got ready to leave the arena with former LSU player and assistant coach Carla Berry and Latasha Dorsey. “I’m extremely proud of this team.”
Former Tigers like Jeanne Kenney, now the head girls basketball coach at St. Michael, and Khalilah Mitchell, who played on LSU’s first five Final Four teams from 2004-08, quickly took to social media after the Tigers secured their trip here with Sunday’s 54-42 Greenville 2 regional final victory over Miami.
Khayla Pointer, the All-Southeastern Conference point guard on Mulkey’s first LSU team last year, just missed a Final Four season. But she has refused to miss a moment, attending LSU’s games in Greenville, South Carolina, and planning to be here for the Final Four.
“It’s so great they’re bringing the attention back to women’s basketball,” said Pointer, who now plays for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
“Nothing surprises me with coach Mulkey. She’s a legend, one of the great coaches in the game. She has these values: play hard, defend, rebounding. You get some great transfers and put them with a stud like Lex (Alexis Morris) and the freshmen they got and it was only a matter of time.”
LSU great Temeka Johnson, the All-American point guard on LSU’s first two Final Four teams in 2004 and 2005, just completed her first season as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky after two years as the girls coach at John Curtis. She too will be in attendance to watch the Tigers take on Virginia Tech in person.
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