The LSU Tigers are through to the Sweet 16 of this year’s March Madness, albeit not without on-court struggles. In a competitive Albany 2 region, the Lady Tigers fought their way through to their second consecutive Sweet 16 appearance. However, head coach Kim Mulkey is fighting a separate battle outside the hardwood. The 3x AP Coach of the Year delivered a fiery statement against a reporter ahead of LSU’s battle against Middle Tennessee on Sunday. Following this, American sports television personality Stephen A. Smith critically analyzed Mulkey’s comments.

On The Stephen A. Smith Show, he started by claiming that the reporter Mulkey is pointing to is Kent Babb. He listed all of Babb’s accomplishments in his career, also revealing that the award-winning reporter has acknowledged he is working on a piece on the LSU head coach. “We got to give this brother his props,” Smith stated. Then he got to Mulkey, congratulating her for getting ahead of the story, something he admitted she didn’t do in the past. “Props for her for changing her course of thinking for once.”

Then he went on a rant against the 61-year-old. “It’s not going to work. Kim Mulkey, if you’re listening. Did you have any idea what you’re saying?… So, you don’t like the man, you told the man you’ll never grant him an interview. That’s according to reports.” Smith proceeded to ask Mulkey one question.

“But here’s what I’m asking you Kim Mulkey respectfully, when you talk about this man this way. Do you understand that the one dancing is you? The article isn’t out yet. We don’t know what’s going to be said. We know that you’re going to sue because you’ve hired an elite, prestigious defamation law firm. We get all of that. But you don’t understand the damage that you did to yourself when you said the man has been trying to reach you for two years.“

Smith then claimed that due to all this “moaning and groaning,” Mulkey tried to dictate his ability to do his job. “Your inaccessibility can’t dictate him doing his job… it doesn’t hold weight because you avoided him.” He further stated that if the reporter has facts and Mulkey is neither accepting nor denying them, then “that’s not his problem.” The ESPN analyst ended his rant by saying, “We weren’t really thinking about you much on a personal level…until you mentioned the story. You actually brought more eyeballs to the story… I hope it was worth it.”

The rumors about the Kim Mulkey article surfaced on Friday. As Smith also mentioned in his podcast, Mulkey didn’t like the alleged reporter’s story on LSU football head coach Brian Kelly. A few days ago when LSU was preparing to face the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, Mulkey made headlines due to her outburst regarding the same during a press conference.

Kim Mulkey didn’t hold back on the anonymous reporter

The 4x national championship-winning head coach hinted towards a lawsuit against the popular media agency. “I’ve hired the best defamation law firm in the country and I will sue The Washington Post if they publish a false story about me. Not many people are in a position to hold these kind of journalists accountable, but I am, and I’ll do it.” How this affects the team remains to be seen.

While the Lady Tigers are more than capable of repeating as champions, the distractions surrounding their head coach might prove to be their downfall. They haven’t been at their best in the NCAA tournament so far as they barely scraped past Rice in the first round, before needing to go off in the final quarter of their game against the Blue Raiders. They will next face the No.2 seed UCLA Bruins in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.

Read More- Kim Mulkey Got Honored With First Pitch as She Protested Against Her Ejection Last Week