Kim Mulkey Q & A Part 1: "Holy smokes, what have we done?"

When building and maintaining a women’s basketball national championship caliber program, it has always been LSU head coach Kim Mulkey’s nature to empty her tank.

Whatever it takes to recruit the best players. Whatever it takes to sell tickets. Whatever it takes to feed the beast.

She may not even stand still long enough Wednesday to acknowledge turning 61 years old.

If you expected Mulkey to exhale after she stunned everyone including herself by guiding LSU to its first NCAA basketball title (men’s or women’s) in just a second season of her miracle flip of a program that had sunk into the lower half of the SEC, well. . .

“I'm doing three and four things a day because I don't know how to say `no’,” Mulkey said last week in our 30-minute fastbreak interview in her office. “I'm learning how to say no.”

More than the seven weeks since the Tigers destroyed Iowa 102-85 in the national championship game in Dallas’ American Airlines Center, you still need a hurricane tracking chart to locate Mulkey on a daily basis.

It seems like she’s everywhere and the proof is in her calendar (as seen below) since that glorious April 2 night when the Tigers unloaded the greatest offensive output ever seen in an NCAA women’s championship game.

•April 5: Worked a one-hour shift with some of her players in a unique fans meet-and-greet at the Raising Cane's drive-in window just outside the LSU campus north gates followed hours later by the campus celebration parade and the ceremony in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

•April 10: Attended the WNBA draft with some of her staff in New York City where LSU point guard Alexis Morris was drafted.

•April 12: Celebrated at the annual LSU Fast Break Club team banquet.

•April 20: Visited the Louisiana state legislature with some of her team on LSU Day where she revealed her wish for a renovation of the 51-year-old PMAC or the construction of a new campus basketball arena.

.•April 25: Attended a team dinner at the Governor’s Mansion.

•April 26: Spoke at a Baton Rouge Rotary Club meeting where she again pushed for a new arena or a PMAC renovation.

.•April 27: Signed Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith, the nation’s top-rated player in the transfer portal.

•May 1: Took a second trip to New York City with her full staff for several days to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange and accept the New York Athletic Club Winged Foot award given to the coach of the national championship team.

May 5: Signed DePaul forward Annesah Morrow, the nation’s No. 2 rated player in the transfer portal..

•May 11: Attended a ceremony at Juban’s Restaurant where a new painted portrait of her was hung in the Tigre Lounge.

.•May 12: Was honored with a painting from Coca-Cola when she received LSU’s official national championship Coke bottle.

Monday: Delivered the commencement address at the LSU vet school graduation ceremonies.

All of the above doesn’t include numerous lengthy TV interviews as well as radio and podcast interviews.

It also doesn’t include her interview with me just before she rushed off to Juban’s last week to see her painted portrait revealed.

Today’s part one of our three-part interview covers Mulkey’s whirlwind aftermath since winning the title. Wednesday’s part 2 is on the challenges she faces to keep the program moving forward. Thursday’s part 3 centers on the 2023-24 team and the new role of LSU being favored to repeat as national champs instead of flying under the radar as it did at the start of this past season.

RH: For as much success as you previously had two winning national championships as a Louisiana Tech player and four as a coach (one as a Tech assistant and three as Baylor’s head coach), especially when you were deemed as one of the favorites, is it still difficult to fathom that you won a national title at LSU in just your second year re-building a program?

KM: I think I realized that when there was about 1:30 left in the championship game. I was like `Holy smokes, what have we done?’ I'll sit here in my office and sometimes just holler down the hall `Hey guys, we won the national championship.’ And we laugh. I'll send a group text to the players that says `Hey, don't forget you're national champions.' I guess the older you get, the more you live in the moment and enjoy it.

But I don't know if it was because this one was in Louisiana back at LSU. Or if was because it was the first time winning a national championship for our coaches and players., I don't know if it's because the Final Four was in Dallas (90 minutes north of her previous job in Baylor in Waco where she still has a residence). I don't know if it was because of how quick we did it. I don't know what it was.

But it was something, I'll tell you that.

RH: Entering the championship game vs. Iowa, your team had made only 14 3-pointers while shooting just 19.7 percent in the five previous NCAA tourney games. In the regional finals, vs. Miami, your team shot just 30 percent from the field and scored just 54 points.

Is there any logical explanation for setting an NCAA championship record by scoring 102 points on Iowa and hitting 11 of 17 3's (64.7 percent)?

KM: Coaches lay in bed in their career, and they'll go `Gosh, I just hope and wish that I would someday be able to coach in a championship game and everybody played their best.’ That's what we did. Two games before that (in the regional final vs. Miami) I told people on national TV `Turn your TV off, this is some bad basketball.’

Ten days later, you can't turn your TV off because you can't believe what you see. You dream of that. And I can now say I've coached in a national championship game where everybody played their best basketball.

I've coached in championship games where we dominated, but you get the performance from two or three players. There wasn't anybody I put in that game (vs. Iowa) that didn't dominate. It's bizarre. It's crazy.

I keep asking my daughter `Am I about to die?’ She's like `Mom, don't say that.’

This (national championship) just has a different feel (than her first three at Baylor). And I don't know if it's because of social media. I don't know if it's because of being in Louisiana. I don't know what it is. But yeah, it's just a lot bigger and crazy.

RH: Your national title game vs. Iowa on ABC averaged 9.9 million TV viewers, the most watched NCAA women’s basketball game in history. It had a peak viewership of 12.6 million. For days after in national and social media, the Angel Reese/Caitlin Clark taunting debate dominated the news.

The NCAA men’s championship game (UConn-San Diego State) on CBS had an average of 14.69 million viewers, the least watched men’s title game on record.

The Magic Johnson and Michigan State vs. Larry Bird and Indiana State in the men’s national title 1979 game is credited as being THE game that accelerated the growth and popularity of the men’s national tourney. This year’s entire women’s Final Four, capped by your championship game win, is projected it will have the same effect as did the men’s '79 title game.

What made this women’s Final Four special?

KM: Coach (Leon) Barmore (who coached Mulkey at Louisiana Tech and then hired her as assistant) called me. He said, `OK, we’ve been doing this a long time. Why was this one (Final Four) so much bigger, including the viewership?’ I said, `Coach, I can’t give you anything but uneducated guesses and answers.’

First, both games (Iowa-LSU in the finals, Iowa-South Carolina semifinals) were good games. There was quality coaching. All four coaches (including Virginia Tech) were good coaches. There was quality of play and the individual skill level of players. All four teams had superstar players.

There was competitiveness. You add the trash-talking, eyelashes and the long fingernails and it was like `Oh Lord, these girls are killing it.’

Was it my jackets? I don’t know. Was it Angel Reese’s eyelashes. I don’t know. Was it Clark’s three-point shooting? I don’t know. Maybe it was a combination of those things.

Whatever it was attracted the casual fan that wouldn’t normally watch.

RH: You’ll be starting your 24th season as a head coach later this year. How have you managed to adapt to the changes, both on and off the court, that has transformed the culture of women’s basketball?

KM: You surround yourself with lots of assistant coaches that keep you young and stay abreast of what this day and age athlete is interested in. But yet you also have on your staff the old school, so I've got a great mixture of all of it and it keeps you from getting stagnant.

You don't change your coaching. I still make you play defense. I still hold you accountable. I still discipline you. But it's all the stuff away from the court that if you're not going to embrace it and you're not going to want to deal with it, then you better have someone on your staff that does.

RH: So, have you learned to say `no’ enough to actually plan some personal time from this 1½-month merry-go-round you’ve been riding?

KM: I'm going for a week to Waco and be with the kids, grandkids and then I’ll come back for our (May 26) team visit with President Biden at the White House.

I'll go see (her son) Kramer (Robertson) for a couple of days (in Memphis where he’s the starting shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals Triple-A minor league team) and then I'll go to the SEC business meetings in Destin before our camps here in June leading into recruiting in July and a family beach vacation in August.

I wouldn't say it has been chaotic. It's been busy. It's not something I can't usually handle. If I can't, I tell them no or I get an assistant to help me.