First-year LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey was named as one of 15 coaches on the Watch List for the Naismith National Coach of the Year as in her first year at LSU she has led the Tigers to their best regular season in 15 years.
The Hammond native is a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was hired to come home to Louisiana in April, taking over a team that won nine games last year. With four games remaining in the regular season LSU is 21-4 (9-3 SEC). In her 22nd season as a head coach, Mulkey has won at least 20 games every year and in her first year at LSU she has led the Tigers to their most regular season victories since the 2007-08 season.
Mulkey has reinvigorated the LSU women’s basketball program and has the Tigers in a position where they control their own destiny. After being picked in the preseason to finish No. 8 in the SEC, LSU has the opportunity to finish as high as No. 2 in the nation’s most competitive conference. The Tigers are also in position to earn one of the Top-16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament which would allow them to host first and second round games inside the PMAC.
Mulkey became the fast DI head coach in men’s or women’s history to reach 650 career wins, needing only 758 games to do so. The most successful player-turned-coach in men’s or women’s history, Coach Mulkey is the only person to ever win NCAA National Championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach. She is an eight-time National Coach of the Year.
Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Watchlist
Jennie Baranczyk – Oklahoma
Adia Barnes – Arizona
Kim Barnes-Arico – Michigan
Bill Fennelly – Iowa State
Kelly Rae Finley – Florida
Nell Fortner – Georgia Tech
Kellie Harper – Tennessee
Jeff Judkins – BYU
Wes Moore – NC State
Teri Moren – Indiana
Kim Mulkey – LSU
Karl Smesko – FGCU
Dawn Staley – South Carolina
Tara VanDerveer – Stanford
Jeff Walz – Louisville
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