On Thursday, Kim Mulkey’s team put the country on notice with their blowout win, dismantling Texas Southern 131-22 for the largest win (109 points) in NCAA Division I history. Angel Reese, one of Mulkey’s best students, watched from the sideline with a smile on her face. Having played under the legendary coach for two years, the WNBA star knew that the result wasn’t an accident, but a direct result of Mulkey’s elite coaching away from the cameras.  

“Honestly, I think any player that plays under Coach Mulkey, I think it makes it easy going into the W because you’re coached so hard in college, and now you get to the W, it makes it so easy. When you go from four-hour practices to an hour, I’m like, ‘Well, anymore like what else do we have?’ So yeah, it’s really easy. The transition is a lot easier,” Reese told reporters after the Tigers’ win, with Mulkey sitting with her on the podium.

Mulkey took over LSU’s coaching in 2021, just a year before Reese transferred from Maryland in 2022. Two years later, she delivered the Tigers’ first national title. It was a testament to Mulkey’s winning coaching, not that it needed any proof. After all, the legendary coach had led Baylor to three national titles before taking over LSU’s top coaching job. 

While the Tigers recorded the largest win margin in NCAA Division I history, the head of the team holding the previous record (108 points) was also Mulkey. In 2016, Baylor defeated Winthrop 140-32 while she was their head coach.

Mulkey’s list of students is also elite. From Teresa Weatherspoon, Angel Reese, Brittney Griner and Flau’jae Johnson to Betty Lennox, the list is dominated by winners. But Reese’s place would always be special in LSU and Mulkey’s heart. The love goes both ways. Reese learned to win in big moments here, and she has carried forward that discipline into her pro career.

“Playing hard on every single possession. There’s no taking plays off. That is the standard, and I can hold everybody accountable because I know what the expectation is, and that has helped me win. That’s the result I’ve had from winning. Being surrounded by winners, that’s the only thing I know,” the WNBA star further added.

Reese is the perfect example that winning takes much more than talent. She is not the most skilled player in the WNBA, nor was she in the NCAA. But the Atlanta Dream star won because she also possessed a competitive motor unlike anybody, and Mulkey was perhaps the first one to use it to its fullest potential. 

Reese said that Mulkey still talks to her after games and gives her feedback. It’s another testament, like Reese revealed, that Mulkey still wants to coach her former student.

LSU honored Reese during halftime of the LSU-Texas Southern contest at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Mulkey gifted her former star player a bouquet before Reese also urged her to join her at the center court with fans cheering the former star. During the presser, Mulkey said that she wished players kept themselves close to their alma mater like Reese. 

Moreover, the LSU visit also helped BYU Barbie’s reunion with one of her former teammates. Reese reunited with Mikaylah Williams, who was a freshman when Reese was in her senior year at LSU. With her former teammate watching, Williams delivered an outstanding performance.

The Atlanta Dream star was clearly impressed with how much her former teammate had elevated her game, especially her scoring. After the game, the WNBA star dropped big praise for Williams. 

“Her midrange is deadly and her 3-point range continues to grow, but her confidence — she continues to be confident,” Reese said during the postgame press interaction. “She’s stepping into a role where she’s a senior now, and she has to take the big shots, and the pressure is on her, and she takes it, and she owns it, and I can see that from her. She’s very coachable, honestly, a coach’s dream.” 

From crafty layup to long-distance shots, Williams’ game has gotten deeper in her senior year. She was one of the two players to score 20 or more points. She had 20 points on 8-of-13 shots from the field and 4-of-8 from the 3-point line. Williams also added six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Anna Minaeva led LSU with 21 points. She came off the bench, and her points came in just 20 minutes. Seven of the LSU Tigers scored in double digits, including all five starters. The story was simply different on the other side.

Five Texas Southern players failed to score a point. But that wasn’t the lowest part of their game. In the last three quarters, they scored 9 points, nearly half of their first-quarter scoring (13). In the second quarter, Texas Southern didn’t score a point as a team against 40 points from LSU. Read it again! Not a single point.

It seemed like Mulkey had indeed gotten her players WNBA-ready, or maybe their opponents played their worst basketball. But again, in their season opener, LSU defeated SE Louisiana 129-35, and that tells more about Mulkey’s coaching than anything else.