If there’s one team in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament LSU head coach Kim Mulkey and star player Angel Reese don’t need a scouting report on, it’s the one standing between the Lady Tigers advancing to the Sweet 16.
When No. 3 seed LSU (29-2) takes on No. 6 seed Michigan (23-9) Sunday at 6:30 p.m. in a Baton Rouge Regional second-round game in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, it’s the third time in last six NCAA tourneys dating back to Mulkey’s Baylor coaching days that she’s matched against Michigan and its head coach Kim Barnes Arico.
“When you get to the NCAA playoffs, you want to see new people,” Mulkey said. “When I saw her (Barnes Arico) leaving the court (after Michigan’s Thursday practice), she looked at me and I looked at her and said. `What in the hell is the deal? Is it a 'Kim' thing?’ She goes, "I know it."
The challenge Mulkey knows she’s facing is a Michigan team with more experience and more physical players than the Lady Tigers.
The Wolverines start two fifth-year seniors, a four-year senior and a junior and a sophomore with a combined 273 college starts.
“They have been together a while, and they play like it,” Mulkey said. “They know every move each of them makes. And when things don't go too good they figure out a way to get out of it, whether it's a turnover or a trap or something that catches them off guard. And that's just confidence from having played a lot of games together.”
While Michigan’s tallest players are 6-3 forwards Emily Kizer and Cameron Williams, Mulkey said the Wolverines’ physical play extends to their guards.
“I looked at the entire roster, they have two kids under 6 feet,” Mulkey said. And we're not talking big like South Carolina’s 6-5 and 6-7, just solid 6 foot and bigger.
“We don't have that kind of size. So that means they are going to contest a lot of shots, they are going to rebound the ball hard, they are going to be physical, they are going to mix their defenses.”
It’s something Reese, LSU’s AP and USBWA first-team All-America honoree already knows.
Reese transferred this season to LSU from Big 10 Conference member Maryland where she played three league games in the past two seasons vs. Michigan.
Coming off the bench once two years ago and starting twice last season against the Wolverines, Reese averaged 7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 4 turnovers and made just 20.8 percent (5 of 24) of her shots.
“I always remember playing Michigan,” said Reese, who raised her SEC-leading scoring (23.7) and rebounding (15.5) averages after she had 34 points and 15 rebounds in Friday’s 73-50 first-round win over Hawaii. “I just know just playing against them they are always going to play hard. We have to make sure we are really mentally tough tomorrow because they are really physical team.
“I'm sure Michigan has scouted me and they know what to do, playing against me. I don't think I'm going to be able to do all the easy things I was able to do yesterday. One person can't win the game.”
While LSU has an edge in quickness over the Wolverines – “They are long, they are fast, they have tremendous size, and they have tremendous speed,” Michigan’s Barnes Arico said – the Lady Tigers have an uphill climb if Reese doesn’t get any scoring help.
LSU senior guard Alexis Morris, who’s averaging 14.8 points with some of her best scoring games this season against the toughest competition, scored just 6 points vs. Hawaii. She missed her first six shots and was scoreless until she scored six of Lady Tigers' first 10 points in the fourth period.
She can’t afford the same drought against Michigan. While All Big-Ten first team forward Kiser averages 16.3 points and 7.2 rebounds, the Wolverines’ trio of starting guards Laila Phelia, Leigha Brown and Maddie Nolan combine for 41.8 points per game.
“She's a very confident player, and she's very quick,” Phelia said of LSU’s Morris. “She can do pretty much anything. She can drive, shoot the pull up, and shoot the 3.and she's a pest on defense.”
