Everything Kim Mulkey said after LSU's loss to Colorado
No. 20 Colorado shocked No. 1 LSU on Monday night in Las Vegas as the Tigers dropped their season-opening game 92-78.
The offensive struggles were paired with a defensive showing that had head coach Kim Mulkey searching for answers. The Buffaloes ended the game shooting 53.2 percent from the field and 10-of-23 from 3-point range to take the win over an LSU team that lacked any sort of cohesion or chemistry on the court with the influx of new faces.
Here’s what Mulkey said after the loss.
Are you surprised by this result?
“No. I’m disappointed and surprised in some players I thought would be tougher and have a little fight and leadership about them, but I knew what we faced. You have that many kids with that many minutes together, we had our hands full. We had two returning players from our team last year that started, so we’re putting in some new kids that have experience but not in this system. Colorado did exactly what I thought they would do. They shot the ball from three, they were poised, polished, hungry, everything I’ve said about them, you saw today. We’ll get back to work and dig a little deeper.”
On the disappointing effort…
“You live with poor shooting. You live with a tough night offensively. What I don’t live with is a [lack of] guts, and fight, and physical play. You have to have that dog in you and I don’t think we had it tonight. I think [Mikaylah Williams] and S’Myah Smith did all they could, but look at them. You’re talking about a true freshman and a true sophomore. We need more than just them to have a little bit of fight within. This is not going to devastate us. The sun will come out tomorrow. The sky is not falling. I know a little bit about this game and I knew what we faced, but what I didn’t know about this team was all those things I just described. Those are fixable, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take to fix it.”
“When we get to practice and turn on the film, it won’t be a fun film session. It will be a come to Jesus moment.”
Does this result get across your message better than a win would have after being hyped up this summer?
“I don’t think you can compare this year’s team to last year. We aren’t the same team now that we were when we won it all. That’s not fair to anybody in that locker room. I don’t know if anything this summer has anything to do with what happened in that locker room, I think that locker room is affected by Colorado being a very good team.”
On Colorado’s cohesion…
“They were just hungry. They made it a Sweet 16 last year. They know what it feels like. One leads another, one makes the other look better, that’s experience. That’s minutes played together. I can’t just flip a switch and have us all on the same page this early in the season, but I can tell you it will happen, I just don’t know when. The talent is there, I just don’t know when we start playing like that and we’re smoother.”
