Why Kim Mulkey Schedules an Easy OOC

[Gael]

There seem to be various opinions on why Kim schedules an easy OOC, including that she wants to pad her winning record or somehow "disrespects" the game. To the contrary, Kim over the years has stated many times why she schedules an easy OOC, but I guess not many fans of other programs watch her press conferences.

Some UConn fans in other recent threads seem to understand Kim's primary reasons. For example, @EricLA recently reflected:

"That isn't why, and unfair IMHO. Believe me - I'm no Mulkey fan but...

"Kim Mulkey defends LSU's traditionally lighter nonconference schedules by stating she knows her team best, uses early games for evaluation, and focuses on preparing for tough SEC play and the NCAA Tournament, emphasizing that her proven success with this strategy silences critics who question the "soft" scheduling. She rejects outside opinions from TV or the NCAA Committee, prioritizing the internal development of her team through dominant wins to build confidence.

"I also recall reading that she likes her players to take some time off in the summer instead of playing hoops 365, but I can't find that anywhere so I'm not sure if it's one of her reasons."

Similarly, in that same thread @BJC reported:

"I'm not a Kim Mulkey fan, but I can understand her approach after a conversation with one of her former player's parent. She allows her kids free time during the summer. They are not required to be on campus or participate in summer workouts. Most of them use that time to push their brands, etc...The easy schedule allows them to regroup, build confidence and preserve energy with less chance of injuries. She uses the preseason as a recruiting tool. Her kids are all over social media dancing, laughing while blowing teams out by 50 points a night."

For those who want to hear it directly from Kim, this YouTube video of a November 20, 2025, press conference should start at the point (10:42) where Kim repeats her oft-stated reasons for scheduling an easy OOC.



As a player and coach, Kim Mulkey has won more games and at a higher winning percentage than any player/coach in WCBB—maybe in all of basketball. HERE is a two-year old article that lays out the statistics for that case, and now her wins are even more:

We can talk about Mulkey, the high school player in Louisiana, where she went 136-5. And class valedictorian at 4.0, too, meaning she had five defeats and zero B’s.

Or Mulkey, the college player at Louisiana Tech where her career record was 130-6. And graduated summa cum laude, which is Greek for is there anything this woman can’t do?

Or Mulkey, the Olympian. Team USA went 6-0 for the 1984 gold and 5-0 in the Pan-American Games.

Or Mulkey, the assistant coach at her alma mater. That record was 430-68.

Or Mulkey, the head coach and juggernaut-builder at Baylor, going 632-104 with three national championships.

And now Mulkey, the program magician at LSU, a national champion in her second year and 60-8. The year before she landed in Baton Rouge, the Tigers were 9-13.

Punch in all these numbers and what do you get?

A record of 1,399 wins and 191 losses every time she has stepped on the basketball floor is... something. That’s an 87.99 winning percentage.

Kim Mulkey knows how to win. Knows how to recruit. Knows how to fill the LSU PMAC. Some may disagree with her OOC scheduling philosophy, even assuming they understand it, but it's a bit difficult to disagree with her lifetime winning results.

 

[Basingstoke]

There seem to be various opinions on why Kim schedules an easy OOC, including that she wants to pad her winning record or somehow "disrespects" the game. To the contrary, Kim over the years has stated many times why she schedules an easy OOC, but I guess not many fans of other programs watch her press conferences.

Some UConn fans in other recent threads seem to understand Kim's primary reasons. For example, @EricLA recently reflected:

"That isn't why, and unfair IMHO. Believe me - I'm no Mulkey fan but...

"Kim Mulkey defends LSU's traditionally lighter nonconference schedules by stating she knows her team best, uses early games for evaluation, and focuses on preparing for tough SEC play and the NCAA Tournament, emphasizing that her proven success with this strategy silences critics who question the "soft" scheduling. She rejects outside opinions from TV or the NCAA Committee, prioritizing the internal development of her team through dominant wins to build confidence.

"I also recall reading that she likes her players to take some time off in the summer instead of playing hoops 365, but I can't find that anywhere so I'm not sure if it's one of her reasons."

Similarly, in that same thread @BJC reported:

"I'm not a Kim Mulkey fan, but I can understand her approach after a conversation with one of her former player's parent. She allows her kids free time during the summer. They are not required to be on campus or participate in summer workouts. Most of them use that time to push their brands, etc...The easy schedule allows them to regroup, build confidence and preserve energy with less chance of injuries. She uses the preseason as a recruiting tool. Her kids are all over social media dancing, laughing while blowing teams out by 50 points a night."

For those who want to hear it directly from Kim, this YouTube video of a November 20, 2025, press conference should start at the point (10:42) where Kim repeats her oft-stated reasons for scheduling an easy OOC.



As a player and coach, Kim Mulkey has won more games and at a higher winning percentage than any player/coach in WCBB—maybe in all of basketball. HERE is a two-year old article that lays out the statistics for that case, and now her wins are even more:



Kim Mulkey knows how to win. Knows how to recruit. Knows how to fill the LSU PMAC. Some may disagree with her OOC scheduling philosophy, even assuming they understand it, but it's a bit difficult to disagree with her lifetime winning results.

Not judging her at this point, but I'm curious: does LSU have a lower injury rate than other WBB powers?

 

[TAK]

Of course Kim has a high winning percentage, which is helped by her soft OOC schedule as coach. Good for her. The question is, will she play anyone anytime anywhere?

 

[YKCornelius]

Put me in the group with those who disagree with her OOC scheduling philosophy.

Kim is a winner, no doubt about it.

She's got a ways to go to catch Abe Saperstein, but with a steady diet of cupcakes, who knows?

 

[iri10]

Gotta respect her results. But I'm just glad that I'm a fan of a team that schedules tough OOC teams more regularly.

UConn has to do it because of how weak the conference schedule is, but there are some other teams in power conferences that also aren't afraid to put themselves out there.

It just sounds terribly boring to me, being a fan of a team where the only challenging opponents are the same conference foes, year after year, until late March.

 

[bballnut90]

From a fan perspective I hate it because I feel like we miss out on some compelling preseason matchups and don't really get to know LSU until midseason. From a player perspective, blowout games are fun but I'd get bored quickly if I'm beating the worst teams in the country by 50-60 points a night.

Playing devil's advocate to that, Mulkey effectively is shortening the season by playing a bunch of exhibition games earlier in the year and in theory it helps prevent her team from hitting a wall or running out of steam. A lot of teams start hot and fade as the season unfolds, but by shrinking the season maybe it helps prevent that? At any rate, I don't love the philosophy but her results speak for themselves.

 

[DEpup]

I don't agree with her philosophy but it is her philosophy and she's been successful enough to do it her way. However, could she still get the same results without like 12 quad 4 matchups? What about a progression of some quad 4s than 3s and 2s? Against Kentucky, they did not seem conditioned enough to play 40 minutes with a quad 1 team. There was a lot of heavy breathing.

 

[DefenseBB]

I find it interesting that because she's had so much success, SHE"S the spear tip of the frustration. What about past egregious coaches like Jim Boeheim or this year's Kristy Curry, Coach Abe, Vic Schaefer, Mark Campbell, Krista Gurlich, Shea Ralph (who in her 5 years of coaching at Vanderbilt has NOT played a strong OOC but I guess she gets a free pass for any number of reasons...).

 

[JellyBean]

I have never had an issue with any coach who schedules the way they do. Coach Izzo scheduled a tough schedule over the years to find out what type of team he had at Michigan State. Coach Geno schedules the way he schedules. Coach Pat Summit scheduled the way she wanted. Coach Kim schedules her way. All that matters in the end is if their programs grow and the players are happy with their overall development.

 

[oldhusky]

By the end of the season, LSU will have played a significantly tougher schedule than Uconn according to Massey ratings. The two programs are polar opposites on scheduling. One takes on a very tough out of conference schedule and then has a relatively easy conference schedule. The other schedules cupcakes out of conference, and then faces a majority of their games in probably the toughest conference women's basketball has ever seen.

There are more conference than OOC games therefore LSU can wind up with a tougher schedule overall. Just the way it is. Geno doesn't really have a choice if he wants to stay a top program, Kim does for OOC games and believes her approach works best for her. it surely affects how coaches can get their team ready.

Women's college basketball generally has what, maybe one preseason game and maybe an unofficial scrimmage before the games count. That is very little, so I could see how Kim's approach could be like an extended training camp or preseason, to work the bugs out, get new players used to the system and some experience, and start to figure out what your rotation in contested games will be.

I wouldn't be surprised if Geno doesn't wish he could ease into things more too, but because of the conference schedule he can't. His players need to be rotation ready by the first game, or they may not get many chances to show they belong until the conference schedule in mop up minutes in blow outs. He can experiment, tinker, and give the third unit more experience in the conference games if he wants, but still tends to place emphasis on further refining the chemistry of the core prepping them for the NCAA tournament.

Different approaches, both effective, but the two coaches face very different scenarios because of substantial differences in the conferences. Of course there are also coaches like Dawn Staley that schedule tough OOC games in addition to an exceptionally tough conference schedule, and that seems to work for her too. All three have had success with different approaches so it seems unreasonable to conclude one way is clearly better than the others. Kim and Dawn have more of a choice as to how they want to proceed, Geno really doesn't because of the conference he is in if he wants to play competitive games.

 

[Geew1992]

I find it interesting that because she's had so much success, SHE"S the spear tip of the frustration. What about past egregious coaches like Jim Boeheim or this year's Kristy Curry, Coach Abe, Vic Schaefer, Mark Campbell, Krista Gurlich, Shea Ralph (who in her 5 years of coaching at Vanderbilt has NOT played a strong OOC but I guess she gets a free pass for any number of reasons...).

I think the difference is, although Ralph doesn’t schedule a tough OCC, she doesn’t schedule the JV teams. They maybe unranked, but not the low ended D1 schools.

LSU schedule the lowest possible D1 schools. If they played, say, schools like seton hall or Villanova, dint think the complaining would be as loud

 

[cancontent]

The one thing I do appreciate in Mulkey's approach is letting the players have more downtime during the summer. Especially in today's basketball environment when players are playing almost all year round in AAU competitions.

A lot of these players don't get to a have a summer like typical high school students. The time away could do wonders for them.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

It's somewhat rare in the pantheon of championship coaches.

Ray Tanner at SCar would reluctantly schedule Clemson and the three softest baseball programs he could possibly come up with, but baseball is a little different in that you have so many more contributors and roles to sort.

 

[Rocket009]

I couldn't find the original article, but I remember reading the the SEC encouraged its teams to play easier schedules early, to boost the conference's ranking. That way it has more higher ranked teams when they go to conference play, leading to an artificially tougher schedule. The goal was to get more of the SEC teams into the tournament - which makes the conference more money.

 

[Hayven]

I believe Kim said the payouts to the schools they play help those teams as well. But I’m sorry her scheduling will continue to a point of contention. Regardless of the reasoning. I am one who likes competitive games. I’m not saying she should play Louisville, NC, USC (the real USC), UCLA, or Michigan, every year. But one or two games would be nice.
Interestingly, this TikTok video came up on my FYP this morning. Ya’ll should take a look…

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I couldn't find the original article, but I remember reading the the SEC encouraged its teams to play easier schedules early, to boost the conference's ranking. That way it has more higher ranked teams when they go to conference play, leading to an artificially tougher schedule. The goal was to get more of the SEC teams into the tournament - which makes the conference more money.

I didn't see that article. no one had to persuade Mulkey, we know that.

Also, lighter schedules is the exact opposite of what gets teams in the dance, so that makes little sense. there wasn't exactly a over abundance of SEC schools scheduling aggressively to begin with.

I can't think of a single SEC team that missed tournament because of overscheduling in recent memory. .

 

[Majorthreat]

She can schedule whom she wants. You will never improve by playing against lower competition and quad 3 and 4 schools and HBCUs. She thought her team was really hitting on all cylinders, scoring 107 points a game, night in and night out. I noticed when they played Duke who has no offense at all, they had a tough time putting them away and it was only the 3rd time they didn't score 100 points along w Morgan St and the Kentucky game. Playing patsies will help your bench players more than your starters to get them some experience. 15 Games into the season, you really want to know what type of team you have. Whats the saying, "iron sharpens iron"? That's half of the season already. Geno understands you have to beat all comers in the tournament so if they are the number 1 or 3 seed, it really doesn't matter.