What She Said: LSU's Kim Mulkey Breaks Down Sweet 16 Matchup Against UCLA

Mulkey and the Tigers face the Bruins on Saturday with a chance to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight.

NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament - Albany Regional / Andy Lyons/GettyImages

Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers made their way to Albany on Thursday as they gear up for a Sweet 16 showdown against the UCLA Bruins just 24 hours away.

On Friday, Mulkey met with the media to discuss the upcoming matchup with a chance to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight.

Here's the full Q/A from Friday in New York:

Q. Kim, since you made your statement I think a week ago, I'm wondering if you've heard from the Washington Post, and B, what it's been like kind of waiting for that story to come out?

KIM MULKEY: I did make a statement, and that's all I'll comment on at this time because all I am focused on is to try and win another basketball game. Thank you for asking, though.

Q. Not to belabor the point, but from what you have been told or what you have been asked --

KIM MULKEY: About?

Q. The Washington Post story --

KIM MULKEY: I'm only here today to talk about the next game.

Q. Can I just ask do you think that would've been written about male coach or a coach in the men's game?

KIM MULKEY: That's for you to write.

Q. A big picture women's basketball question which I hope doesn't offend the rules of the NCAA, you've been around the game for a long time playing in it and coaching in it. Can you talk about the growth of the game, the viewership, the attendance. This region has some very big games in it, including yourself, Angel, Caitlin and a few others. What you've seen in your time as far as growth.

KIM MULKEY: I'm a lot younger than you want people to believe. No, I have been around a long time, since I was 23 years of age, and I have seen a lot of wonderful things in this game.

I don't know that I have ever seen anything like now, and I keep asking myself why. What is making it this way now. I don't know that I have the answer. I have lots of thoughts, but it's wonderful. It's off the charts.

We have people watching our game that never gave a flip about women's basketball before, and I love that.

Q. Another big picture basketball question, but curious your thoughts on the transfer portal opening up the day after Selection Sunday. I know a lot of coaches that have made the tournament have spoke about the fact they should be able to focus on the postseason.

KIM MULKEY: Well, I do just focus on the postseason. That's what you have assistants for. Obviously it's the rules, and my coaches work it hard. It's like free agency in baseball. You'd better open that computer and see who's in the portal. I don't.

It's the same way with NIL. I don't deal with NIL. We have people that do that. I just want to focus on X's and O's and coaching basketball.

Q. A logistical question for you. Can you talk about what it's like with these new super regionals in terms of locker room changeovers and knowing when to get here and shootarounds? Is there something you would change, and is there something they learned from last year that is helping this year?

KIM MULKEY: Last year was the first year, I think, wasn't it? Eight teams have to be accommodated for in Albany. When you bring in eight teams, do you have eight hotels that are all of equal value, that are all the same? Probably not. I don't know how many cities do.

That's a concern, is that when you get to a Sweet 16, some people won't ever go past a Sweet 16. It's a big deal. So are the accommodations, whether it's food, hotel, anything, are they all going to be of equal -- what's the word I'm looking for? Value, I guess.

I get concerned about that. Is that hotel as nice as the next hotel?

I know we do seeding. The higher seeds get the nicer hotels, but maybe we'll reach a place one day where we can give the bids to people who can say here are our eight hotels and they're all great. That doesn't mean they're bad hotels, but I think kids look at stuff like that.

Unfortunately, the bids go out before I don't know how many years ahead of time. Are we getting enough people bidding on the women's game, and maybe that's why one is where it is and one is where it is. I don't know. That would be an NCAA question.

I know with the personalities and the ratings and how good the game is right now, maybe we will get more bids to host.

Do I like the eight? I'm pretty good with what we used to have. I'm pretty good with what we had.

But that doesn't mean having eight in one spot is bad. But just make sure if you're going to have that many in one city that everything is pretty equal.

Q. Two things on just strategy for the game tomorrow. I'm wondering for Angel to have gone up against Kamilla Cardoso, how much does that inform what you're going to be using as strategy for her with Lauren Betts? And then in terms of the pace of the game, you guys played real fast this year, which I know is not typical for you guys. Is that something you're looking to do to push the pace more against UCLA which was more middle of the pack?

KIM MULKEY: Well, I would correct you there. We play fast. I want to run. Does playing against Cardoso help us with Betts? Height-wise, absolutely. They're tall. So Angel has guarded Cardoso numerous times in the SEC. That will help.

They're two different kind of players in a lot of ways, but the height obviously is a big common deal amongst both of them.

Q. How well are players today equipped to deal with distractions? Your team in particular, how well do you think you're able to deal with that? There's a lot of stuff that goes on with these players, the fame they have and that sort of thing.

KIM MULKEY: Are you talking about social media and media in general?

Q. In general, yes.

KIM MULKEY: I'm not on social media. I don't know. My team seems to be as focused as they were when we won it all last year. I think that's what you do in film work and on the court and all that stuff.

Now, I don't walk behind them and say how many times have you turned your phone on today or anything. It's the world they live in. We're focused. I don't know if I can answer that for them because I don't know what they do in their personal life when it comes to all that stuff.

Q. You talked a little bit about the post matchup, but what specific skills does Lauren Betts have that you guys are going to try and neutralize?

KIM MULKEY: Well, the first skill she has is not a skill. She was blessed with height. Lauren is -- she just has post moves at a young age. She's pretty young, and she's got good guard play around her to where when she gets double-teamed or gets in trouble down there, she's got outlets and people to throw it to. She's very skilled.

I could give you a million great things about that young lady. I recruited her out of high school and she's just good. She's just really good.

Q. I'm curious over your career, over all the NCAA tournaments you've been to, have you changed anything about how you approach overall the tournament and trying to get back to the Final Four?

KIM MULKEY: Well, you mean strategy-wise, X's and O's-wise or preparation or what?

Q. In general has anything changed at all?

KIM MULKEY: I think you live and you learn. I think we mature as coaches, and things that you used to do you might not do anymore. I think each team is different in how you approach it, what they need and what they don't need.

Coaching is coaching, but each team is different, and so you might do something a little bit different this year than you did 10 years ago. You just have to go with your gut.

I've always had a good read of my team, and you don't just get stressed over it. You don't over-coach. You don't overthink it. Go play ball.

Q. Following up on Lauren Betts, she had said that she played with Angel for Team USA last summer. Does that help Angel or you guys having a familiarity, the fact that the two have played together in addition to seeing them on film?

KIM MULKEY: You're telling me something I didn't even realize. Angel hasn't mentioned it. I never even thought about it. We're just in the film room watching games of who they've played this year, and unless she's mentioned it to any of our assistant coaches, I can't tell you that I've ever had a conversation on what she does good or does bad or how I'm going to guard her.

Angel just listens to scouting reports and chimes in if she sees something on the scouting report that she doesn't understand or on the film that she thinks would be better. But hasn't even mentioned that.

Q. Kim, in your experience, how much stock is the NCAA Tournament in terms of players that you have that are weighing the option of potentially entering their name into the WNBA draft? In your experience do you have scouts and GMs that talk to you about how they played during the tournament down the stretch? Does that factor in at all?

KIM MULKEY: Most of the -- I don't talk to a lot of scouts. I think they probably talk to my coaches, but I don't even know that. If they do talk to them, it's personal relationships and asking about things.

Scouts will call me -- when I say scouts, I'm talking about WNBA coaches, and they'll ask me things throughout the course of the year.

But yeah, I don't know that it -- at this point, I really don't think competitive athletes think about the next level. I think they just want to win. They're in the moment. They're enjoying themselves. They know that when it's all over, they'll have a decision to make: Come back on go. But we don't sit around and talk about it.

I've said many times through the course of the year what I thought Angel and Hailey would do, but we don't talk about all that. That'll take place when it's all over.

Q. UCLA was talking about watching Carolina tape and Cardoso, the way they played against you. I was just wondering having just played Middle and having played Carolina, having talented bigs but also dangerous guards, how much does that help your prep?

KIM MULKEY: Well, if everybody looked at the Carolina tape, we'd all be scared because they're that good.

Everybody is good. At this stage, this is the most wonderful thing; we talked about how the game had changed. The game has changed because of the transfer portal, in a lot of ways in a good way.

Now, the portal hurts a lot of coaches and can devastate your program, but you also gain. But what I'm thinking is happening is you're seeing parity in the women's game because of the transfer portal.

You've got 16 teams here. They're good. They're good. I don't know going all the way back to when I was a player if we ever thought there were more than one or two or three teams that were going to win it all.

Now you really don't know. We're a classic example of that. Last year nobody thought we would win a National Championship, but we did. I like that. I like the fact that we all have to stay on our toes and recognize that there are more than two or three teams anymore that just dominate the women's game.

Q. Everybody is going to look to the post play, but how important do you think guard play, especially you being a former guard, is going to be in this matchup?

KIM MULKEY: Well, you're going to look at post play because post play is going to be the taller players out there, and both teams use their posts. But you don't think UCLA is loaded at every position? Look, they're supposed to win the game. They're the 2 seed, we're the 3 seed. But we're not going to go away. We're going to fight hard.

They're more than post play. They're good.

We're not just focusing on Lauren Betts and their post play. She averages, I think, nine shots a game. Somebody has got to be shooting those other shots. That answers your question. They're good at all positions. They have depth coming off the bench, and probably even more productive depth than we have had of late.

But they're good.