LSU vs. Iowa: Kim Mulkey Details Anticipated NCAA Tournament Rematch

Mulkey and Co. look to reach the Final Four once again, face off against Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes.

Tigers Head Coach Kim Mulkey and Hailey Van Lith 11 The LSU Tigers take down the Middle Tennessee / SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA

The most anticipated matchup of the college basketball season tips off on Monday evening with Kim Mulkey's Tigers looking to reach the Final Four in back-to-back years.

A new chapter of the Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark story will unfold in New York with both superstars set to go head-to-head once again.

Mulkey addressed the media to discuss the hype, her playmakers and more.

Here's the full Q/A from Sunday:

Q. I've heard you say in the past, Flau'jae has more joy in her heart than any player you've ever coached, if you can expound upon that. Second, if you can talk about her mother Kia. She obviously got very emotional, Flau'jae did, up here yesterday talking about her mom.

KIM MULKEY: I can describe Flau'jae in so many ways because I get to see her every day and coach her on her good days and her bad days. As you watch Flau'jae play and you're just a casual fan that has no allegiance to LSU, you watch her and you go, wow, I just like watching her perform.

An example of that, maybe the blocked shot yesterday. She giggled and grinned all the way down the floor. She was so proud at 5'9" that she could get up there and block a 6'7" young lady's shot. The joy, she was just like, wow, that's a memory for me.

When you hear her talk, she just has that joy about her. She has no agendas. She gets very little sleep. That kid is probably up at 5:00 every morning writing stuff for her career and goes to class and comes to practice and works out.

Q. One of the great things about so many more eyes on women's basketball is people get to learn about some of the names that people who are in women's basketball know about. I wonder if you could talk about Lisa Bluder and what she's done for this game.

KIM MULKEY: Well, coaches don't want the attention. It's all about our players, and that's probably the first thing she would tell you. You don't have those wins without players.

I'm not sure where all Lisa has coached in her career, but she's been at Iowa a long time. We talk about growing the game; look at their fan base.

Lisa, I just have much respect for what she does with her players. I think the sign of a great coach is you adapt and you adjust to the personnel, and while each coach has a different style, if you don't adjust and adapt to each team you have, you become stagnant.

I think that the team she has and the things that they do to be successful tells you that she understands and knows the game.

Q. Two questions, just to put a pin on yesterday. The first one is whether you've heard from Cori Close after she issued her statement over re-tweeting the LA Times story that you mentioned yesterday? And the second one is whether you can use -- this is about the game. Whether you can use any part of your game plan from last year's championship game as you go ahead and game plan for tomorrow?

KIM MULKEY: I have not heard from Cori Close. Now, let me back up a little bit. Guys, I don't know social media. I don't read newspaper articles unless somebody gives it to me. I was actually in the bed sleeping with my grandson, and my assistant sent this Cori Close apology. I didn't even understand what that was about. So they had to explain that she re-Tweeted something. Is that the right word? Because I guess she re-Tweeted that article. So I read it.

Second part of your question?

Q. Whether you can use any part of your game plan from last season against Iowa as you game plan now.

KIM MULKEY: Well, each of us are a new team. We're not the same team we were last year, nor are they. But you certainly have some key pieces on each team.

Our game plan will not even mention what we did last year because we don't have the same personnel.

Q. Kim, piggy-backing off of that, what have been the biggest differences you've noticed between this year's Iowa team versus last year's Iowa team?

KIM MULKEY: Well, the biggest same is Caitlin Clark. The difference is the personnel. The difference is those that were role players last year are now big players, which is what all coaches hope, is that you respect the process, and when your time arrives, you take advantage of it.

They're still going to shoot a lot of threes. But Caitlin Clark is a generational player. She's not all about threes. She can pass the ball. She can take you off the dribble.

Obviously our focus will be on her but not solely on her. Caitlin is going to do what she does. You're not going to stop her. You just hope that you can contain her a little bit and make sure that you do your job on the other four players.

Q. When Lisa was speaking last night, she said it's unfortunate that you're meeting this early in the tournament. What are your thoughts on the matchup in the Elite 8 given that this was the matchup in the national final last year?

KIM MULKEY: This is not to take away from any other team remaining, but I understand her point. We talk about growing the game. Didn't that National Championship game have the highest ratings ever in women's basketball? You're probably going to anticipate this one will, too, but it needs to be at the Final Four.

That may be what she's talking about. I'm not going to speak for her. But man, this would be special if it was at the Final Four.

Q. The LA Times updated their story and took out the line dirty debutantes. I just wanted to know did anyone reach out to you from that organization, offer an apology, and second, do you have any further comment?

KIM MULKEY: I'm going to answer like I did hers. At I don't know what time it is -- y'all have to forgive me. I am old generation. I just don't spend time reading stuff.

Maybe an hour and a half ago, I had someone say the LA Times updated, rewrote, did something, and they did it at 10:20 last night or 10 something, and I said, okay. That was the extent of it. So I'm not sure what the rewrite was. I'm not sure if it was an apology. I'm not sure of any of that.

But personally no one has reached out to me, nor do I require that. I don't need all that. I just like to recognize when I feel something was done inappropriately to young people that I get to coach.

Q. You touched on it a little bit last night, just the total team effort that it's going to require to win this game. Obviously Aneesah and Mikaylah knocking down jumpers, but the minutes that Del Rosario gave you, what's it going to take in this one?

KIM MULKEY: Well, it's going to take all players that play, and I'm going to give you examples of that. We're not going to have to knock down jumpers to beat Iowa. We're going to have to play good. We're going to have to play hard. We're going to have to defend. We're going to have to get back in transition defense. We have to do a lot of little things to beat them.

Hailey Van Lith had a heck of a game yesterday, and people don't even realize it. Five assists, one turnover, three steals, took a big charge at the end, got her one and only rebound at the end. Those things matter when you're a point guard trying to control a game and hang on to a win. She's got to keep doing that. She'll hit some jumpers.

Aalyah coming in when Angel got in foul trouble, she has the body to bang. I've been begging her to be a Mack Truck and not a Kia, and she was a Mack Truck yesterday. She got down in the stance. It was like she was loving that I'm getting to guard somebody that's my size. She was big for us yesterday.

All of them had to do something good yesterday. Not spectacular. You don't have to play out of your mind. Just everybody contribute.

Q. When you play a team again in close proximity, is it easier or harder to be the team that has lost?

KIM MULKEY: You're talking about -- I'm speaking like for Iowa? I don't know how to answer that. I remember one year in the NCAA playoffs, we had played Texas A&M three times in conference and we won all three of them. They matched us up again I think in the Elite 8 in Dallas, and Texas A&M won.

I don't know if it's harder. I don't know if it's easier. I can tell you that competitors kind of flush the past maybe and focus on the job at hand. It might be a little motivating factor, like if you lost the game to them before. But I can't imagine them being more motivated than my team. I can't imagine that.

But I think internally, you try to find something that gives you an edge.

Q. Since yesterday I was wondering if either you've read the Washington Post story or had your lawyers read it and if you have any comment on what was in the story.

KIM MULKEY: I haven't read that trash. I'm not going to read it. That's why I hired lawyers. The lawyers will review it, and when this season is over, they'll give me a call and say, this is our next step. I'm not reading that stuff.

Did I answer all of it? Okay.

Q. A lot of people like to point out sort of the differences between Caitlin and Angel. They're sort of the superstars of these two teams. I am wondering if you see any similarities between them in terms of their competitive fire --

KIM MULKEY: Heck yeah. Heck yeah, you see similarities. You've got two very talented players that have brought a lot of attention to our sport. They both trash talk. They both make their teammates better. They both have their teammates' back. They have both elevated our game to where we have people watching that never watched women's basketball before. Yeah, those are tough women.

Q. I can't recall whether Lex or Kateri guarded Caitlin last year, but Angel said Flau'jae got that assignment last year --

KIM MULKEY: Unh-unh, Alexis Morris guarded her the majority of the time. Maybe when Poa, if I remember, took two charges off of her, Poa came in and guarded her. We'll probably have a combination of it's your turn, you go guard her.

Q. Defensively the improvements you guys have made in the last month and a half, does it give you confidence in big games?

KIM MULKEY: Yes, yes, yes. We're going to defend. We're going to defend, and you can be very good defensively and she can still score on you. She's that good.

Q. You talked about Caitlin and Angel both liking to trash talk. Would you like to not see that boil over like it did at the end of the championship game last year, or is that part of the competitive fire?

KIM MULKEY: I turn on ballgames all the time. Was it Luka Doncic the other day waved bye to Vlade because he didn't draft him? You see that all the time. One of the greatest memories I ever have as a former player, won't ever forget it, 1984 Olympics we're at the RCA Dome, the men's team and the women's team coached by Bob Knight and Pat Summitt were going to get to play against pros.

I had front row seats watching Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Bill Walton, the list goes on, play against our '84 Olympic team, which was Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing. You can go get the list. I was in heaven. The crap that came out of those guys' mouths, I couldn't quit watching. It's sports. It's sports.

I mean, have you ever thought watching games in the NCAA Playoffs how much you could write about a lot of players and the stuff that's come out of their mouths, not just Angel and not just Clark? Anybody else know what I'm talking about? You can do whatever you want if you choose to focus on that. I don't choose to focus on that because you see it all the time if you turn on and watch pro games.

I was a trash talker. I mean, thank God I didn't have all of y'all following me, cameras and everything else. You're out there, you're trying to get after it. Don't make more out of that than has already been written.

Q. I'm curious, what have you seen from Iowa's role players? Where do they excel and how do you think you can --

KIM MULKEY: The three ball. You'd better guard the three ball. They play their roles extremely well. They have such a connection with Clark that when you think you have the three ball covered or the denial, they'll backdoor you. They're going to run. When you look at Iowa, you may not think they get a lot of transition baskets, but they do.

Yes, they're a three ball shooting team, but they do other things. They're good. They're just good. We're going to have to play extremely, extremely well.