Kim Mulkey Reacts to Her Team’s Performance in Opening Round

LSU kicked off their 2025 NCAA tournament with a record breaking performance at home win over San Diego State. The 103-48 victory was the most points ever scored in a tournament game.

In addition, the Tigers got back two of their stars who had been dealing with leg and foot injuries. Head Coach Kim Mulkey talked about what she saw from both Aneesah Morrow and Flau’Jae Johnson in their first game after coming back from injury. She said, “I think Aneesah got a little frustrated, 4-for-11 from the field. I said those are great moves down there. She was spinning down on the block, trying to go with her left hand. And they'd rim in and out. Just keep shooting it.

We ran a couple of quick hitters for her. I needed to get Mikaylah some more quick hitters. But Mikaylah is the best passer we have, so she probably turned down a lot of shots tonight.

As far as their conditioning, I didn't notice fatigue, really. But I was moving players in and out. So I never left them in there for long periods of time.”

Mulkey also spoke about her team’s performance and playing such an unselfish game. She said, “ I think your word "unselfish" is pretty spot on. I said that to them in the timeout. We had a lot of ball reversal. We shared the ball. We also have a talented team in that they don't have to share the ball sometimes. They can just take you off the dribble. And we did some of that in spurts tonight.

But I thought that everybody was excited. Everybody was excited for each other. When everybody gets to play and contribute, they all go home feeling good.

And the crowd was good. Is it almost midnight? Midnight, Cinderella, wasn't it? Pumpkin. Then they tell me we play at 5:00 on Monday. They're not doing us any favors. They don't think we work down here?

Yeah, you must have played a little basketball in your day. We were very unselfish tonight.”