SACRAMENTO — LSU coach Kim Mulkey fiercely denied that she was considering retirement after her team lost to Duke in the Sweet 16.
“I’m not retiring. Do I look that bad?” the veteran coach told reporters on Friday. “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, O.K., until I can’t put a product on that floor that’s competitive, or my health fails me.”
Mulkey is in her fifth season at LSU, where she won the national championship in 2023, finishing with trips to the Elite Eight in ’24 and ’25. She previously won three titles in 21 years at Baylor.
Her staff is in a state of transition. Assistant coach Gary Redus II left earlier this month to become the head coach at Rutgers, and he brought along fellow LSU assistant Daphne Mitchell. Redus was well-known for his impact on recruiting. After the loss on Friday, Mulkey said that she was planning to round out her staff and to add more players.
“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.”
LSU senior guard Flau’jae Johnson is set to graduate and enter the WNBA draft. But most of this roster will be eligible to return next year. That includes leading scorer MiLaysia Fulwiley, a guard who comes off the bench and is one of the most electric players in the college game despite her inconsistency, and forward Mikaylah Williams, as well as underclassman core pieces like ZaKiyah Johnson and Jada Richard.
Mulkey’s team lost to No. 3 seed Duke on a buzzer beater on Friday by a score of 87–85. “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. If you don’t cry, you’re not really invested and you don’t care. And it’s O.K. to cry. It’s O.K. to hurt. And then each day it gets better.”
She added one more thing before she left the dais.
“Put it out there,” said Mulkey, the only person in the women’s game to win a national title as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach. “Not retiring.”
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- Geno Auriemma Blasts NCAA for Tournament Schedule, Basketballs
- Tom Izzo Shoots Down Retirement Talk: ‘What the Hell Am I Going to Do?’
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘There Is No Retiring’: Kim Mulkey Adamantly Denies Rumor After LSU’s Sweet 16 Loss.
