Kim Mulkey

[Longtime fan]

You're right--LSU's most favorable draw was that they didn't have to face SC in the tourney... they clearly were an inferior team to SC. Luckily for them, Iowa had the firepower that LSU didn't to beat SC and Iowa could not defend the paint or low post area nor the perimeter and LSU had the game of a lifetime shooting 3s..

It is reminiscent of the day Texas A&M beat Baylor ( with Stephanie Griner ) and left the path open for UCONN to win it all.

 

[bovwa10]

Mulkey is obviously an excellent recruiter, but minus Griner she hasn't had the game changing talent I'd argue other coaches have had (Moore, Stewart at UConn, Parker at Tenn, Aja Wilson at SC, even Augustus/Fowles at LSU). She gets a lot of very good players and molds them well.

If Angel Reese replicates this past season next year, she deserves to be up there with all those players imo.

 

[DefenseBB]

not college, but Becky Hammon in the pros.

Becky inherited a talented team and only had to compete against 11 others. Color me cynical on this.

 

[triaddukefan]

Mulkey is obviously an excellent recruiter, but minus Griner she hasn't had the game changing talent I'd argue other coaches have had (Moore, Stewart at UConn, Parker at Tenn, Aja Wilson at SC, even Augustus/Fowles at LSU). She gets a lot of very good players and molds them well.

I was thinking about this the other day, other than Griner, Young and I guess Sims... she never had a player do much of anything in the WNBA. Kalani Brown, Nina Davis, Lauren Cox, and Nlyssa Smith are probably the best other players she has coached. Smith could be a good one in the WNBA. The others didn't amount to much.

 

[schmendrick]

Mulkey is a great coach; that is undeniable. Say what you want about her provocative style and her histrionics, but she backs it up. And her players buy in which is all, in the end, that matters.

 

[bovwa10]

I was thinking about this the other day, other than Griner, Young and I guess Sims... she never had a player do much of anything in the WNBA. Kalani Brown, Nina Davis, Lauren Cox, and Nlyssa Smith are probably the best other players she has coached. Smith could be a good one in the WNBA. The others didn't amount to much.

Smith had a very good first year as a pro and should be part of a formidable frontcourt partnership with Boston for the foreseeable future. I'm surprised Lauren Cox hasn't done better in the league, I figured she'd become a Dolson-type player.

 

[hoopsfan22]

UConn for the last 10-15 years has usually had at least two #1 recruits, and at times 3 of the country's 4 #1 recruits. If any other team not named UConn had that kind of embarrassment of riches/concentration of talent and hadn't won a title in the better part of a decade, we'd be questioning the coach. Tara doesn't get that level of talent, and yet here we are criticizing her for only winning 3 titles.

 

[bovwa10]

UConn for the last 10-15 years has usually had at least two #1 recruits, and at times 3 of the country's 4 #1 recruits. If any other team not named UConn had that kind of embarrassment of riches/concentration of talent and hadn't won a title in the better part of a decade, we'd be questioning the coach. Tara doesn't get that level of talent, and yet here we are criticizing her for only winning 3 titles.

Agreed but I also think the recruiting services aren’t ranking the players coming out of high school as accurately as they used to. Players like Rhyne Howard, Liz Kitley, Maddy Siegrist, just to name a few, were all ranked absurdly low coming out high school and on the flip side others were probably ranked too high.