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 one in every 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 received 11 Huge 12 Tournaments throughout her tenure at Baylor, doesn’t see the purpose or validity in them any longer, a minimum of in ladies’s school basketball.
“I’ve received a bunch of convention tournaments. All people likes to win. All people likes to get a trophy,” Mulkey mentioned. “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 crucial match, the NCAA Match. I don’t know why we play them, to be trustworthy.”
Mulkey added: “I do know generally you will have a Cinderella on the lads’s facet, however very not often 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. In case you have convention tournaments, do we actually want all 16 groups within the convention match? 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 seemingly 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 courtroom. 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 mentioned that Morrow “re-aggravated a mid-foot sprain” she suffered earlier within the season. She’s the second LSU star to need to 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 among the finest groups within the nation — one which has piled up a file 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 harm, Mulkey assured people within the postgame press convention that Morrow and Johnson will likely be again for the NCAA Match.
“Oh, yeah, (Morrow) can go. She will go for the (NCAA) match. She was prepared to return again on the market,” Mulkey mentioned. “Win or lose, we now have playoffs internet hosting. Flau’Jae will likely be again. Every part is sweet… We’ve got everyone.”
