Kim Mulkey cements her legacy among the greatest college basketball coaches of all-time
LSU head coach Kim Mulkey was already cemented as one of the greatest women’s college basketball coaches of all-time before Sunday night. On Sunday evening, following the Tigers’ 102-85 win in the national championship over Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes, the Hall-of-Famer only further bolstered her resume. Mulkey joined Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt as the only women’s head coaches to win four or more national crowns.
Not only that, but she also became the second women’s basketball coach to win a national title in her first two seasons at the school. Finally, she set a historic first, becoming the first women’s college basketball head coach to win the national crown with two different schools.
Check out the graphic below from ESPN’s SportsCenter.
Kim Mulkey’s name is etched among the all-time greats
She began her women’s college basketball coaching career as an assistant with Lousiana Tech. Before LSU, she spent the majority of her career as the head coach of the Baylor Bears, where she worked from 2000-2021. In 2011-2012, the Bears finished with an unblemished record of 40-0 under Mulkey’s watch, winning the national championship that season.
It was a historic season for Mulkey and the Bears as the 40 wins marked the most wins in history during a single season, in either men’s or women’s college basketball. During her remarkable tenure there, Mulkey also brought the Bears three national titles (2005, 2012, and 2019). After Sunday night’s result with LSU, she still hasn’t lost in a national championship game.
Her tenure at Baylor established the Bears as one of the most dominant programs in women’s college basketball history for over two decades. She led Baylor to 12 regular season titles in the Big 12 and 11 Big 12 Tournament crowns. Those accomplishments, among the many others she did there, will be near impossible to repeat.
On Sunday night, Mulkey and the Tigers capped off their magical 2022-2023 campaign with a 34-2 overall record. They finished the season in historic fashion and on multiple fronts. Kim Mulkey now has the third most national titles in women’s college basketball history, behind Geno Auriemma (11), and Pat Summitt (8). This year’s national championship game was the highest scoring of all-time. Angel Reese set the all-time single season record for double-doubles, 34. There are plenty of other historic marks to list, but for now, the LSU women’s basketball team will just have to bask in the glory and glow of winning the school’s first-ever national crown.