GREENVILLE, S.C. — Kim Mulkey likes to win. She likes to win at any time and in anywhere, in any format and in any venue.
However after seeing considered one of her star gamers — All-SEC ahead Aneesah Morrow — exit LSU’s SEC Match semifinal loss to Texas with a foot harm, she isn’t actually certain why convention tournaments are nonetheless a factor. Mulkey, who gained 11 Huge 12 Tournaments throughout her tenure at Baylor, doesn’t see the purpose or validity in them any longer, at the very least in ladies’s school basketball.
“I’ve gained a bunch of convention tournaments. Everyone likes to win. Everyone likes to get a trophy,” Mulkey stated. “However on the finish of the day, I’ve additionally been in these tournaments the place I had accidents. These children couldn’t go on and play in a very powerful event, the NCAA Match. I don’t know why we play them, to be trustworthy.”
Mulkey added: “I do know typically you’ve gotten a Cinderella on the lads’s facet, however very hardly ever do you see a Cinderella on the ladies’s facet at a (Energy 4) degree. You bought to play, however I’ve by no means been a fan of convention tournaments. To me, it’s too lengthy. If in case you have convention tournaments, do we actually want all 16 groups within the convention event? I don’t know. They don’t care what we expect, proper? Directors make all the selections. We simply give an opinion. They both prefer it or they don’t.”
Morrow, who will possible be an AP All-American this season and leads the nation in rebounding, went down early within the third quarter and needed to be helped off the court docket. She later returned to LSU’s bench sporting a padded boot on her left foot and didn’t reenter the sport because the Tigers fell 56-49 to the Longhorns.
After the sport, Mulkey stated that Morrow “re-aggravated a mid-foot sprain” she suffered earlier within the season. She’s the second LSU star to must grapple with a lower-body harm this month. Level guard Flau’Jae Johnson has missed the final three video games whereas coping with irritation in her shins.
Johnson and Morrow are LSU’s two main scorers this season, averaging 18.9 and 18.5 factors per recreation, respectively. With them, LSU has regarded like probably the greatest groups within the nation — one which has piled up a report of 28-5 this season that has locked up internet hosting rights for the primary weekend of the NCAA Match.
However with out them, the Tigers might discover themselves within the crosshairs of an upset in March Insanity.
Regardless of her ire for convention tournaments and frustrations along with her gamers getting damage, Mulkey assured people within the postgame press convention that Morrow and Johnson can be again for the NCAA Match.
“Oh, yeah, (Morrow) can go. She will go for the (NCAA) event. She was prepared to return again on the market,” Mulkey stated. “Win or lose, we’ve playoffs internet hosting. Flau’Jae can be again. All the things is sweet… We have now all people.”
