LSU head coach Kim Mulkey lands contract bonus following historic national championship victory

The LSU Tigers women’s basketball team made school history on Sunday night, defeating Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85. With the historic win, Angel Reese and company brought Baton Rouge their first ever women’s basketball national crown. It was a remarkably impressive accomplishment in just the second year for LSU for head coach Kim Mulkey. Not only did she win a national crown, but she landed a $150,000 contract bonus, per Steve Berkowitz of USA Today. She ends her remarkable season with $484,000 in contract bonuses. Mulkey signed an eight-year contract with LSU in the spring of 2021, worth roughly $2.5 million per year.

Not only did Mulkey make some history for LSU, but she firmly cemented her legacy among the greatest women’s basketball coaches in the history of the sport. She joined Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt as the only women’s head coaches to win four or more national crowns. Not only that, 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.

She began her women’s college basketball coaching career as an assistant with Lousiana Tech. 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).

Her tenure at Baylor established the Bears as one of the most dominant programs of the past two decades in women’s college basketball. 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. 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.