'Very emotional' Mulkey leads LSU to elusive national title

DALLAS — When Kim Mulkey stunned the women's college basketball world to take the LSU head-coaching job, there never really seemed to be a question that at some point, she would lead the Tigers to a national championship.

But to do it two years into the job? As an underdog? With her team counted out at every turn? Against player of the year Caitlin Clark? Mulkey concedes that was never really in her plans.

Yet there she stood — and hooted and hollered and stomped her feet and yelled at the refs — in the middle of the national title game Sunday afternoon, her gold-and-black sequined Tigers print pantsuit shimmering under the arena lights, and, well, it obviously became the plan.

In a game that delivered the high drama and jaw-dropping plays that many expected, Mulkey and unsung hero Jasmine Carson led the Tigers past Clark and Iowa 102-85 in the highest-scoring national title game of all time, in front of a raucous, packed crowd that alternated between euphoric and desperate with each momentum swing.

Mulkey is the first women's college basketball coach to lead two different teams to national championships, and this one by far is the most unexpected, as a No. 3 seed questioned for large swaths of the season for not playing a tough enough nonconference schedule. With one minute left in the game, Mulkey turned to her bench, put her hand to her mouth and tried to hold back her tears. The crowd chanted, «L-S-U!»

«I couldn't hold it,» Mulkey said. «I got very emotional. That's really not like me until the buzzer goes off, but I knew we were going to hold on and win this game. I don't know if it's the mere fact that we're doing this in my second year back home. I don't know if it was the fact that I am home. I don't know if it