Kim Mulkey had to tip her cap to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. LSU fell 94-87 to Iowa in the Elite Eight, losing a rematch of last year’s national championship game.
The Tigers, who led after the first quarter and were in a tie game at halftime, had no answer for Clark in the second half. All of a sudden, Clark drained three after three, finishing with a record nine three-pointers.
At a certain point, you just have to admire what’s going on and that’s exactly what Mulkey did. The head coach was asked what she said to Clark during the handshake line.
“What did I say to her? I said, ‘I sure am glad you leaving.’ I said, ‘Girl, you something else. Never seen anything like it,’” Mulkey said. “There’s not a whole lot of strategy. You’ve got to guard her. Nobody else seems to be able to guard her. We didn’t even guard her last year when we beat them. She’s just a generational player and she just makes everybody around her better.”
Clark finished the game with 41 points, seven rebounds and 12 assists. Sure, Clark showed off the range once again and had an immaculate third quarter.
But the way Mulkey saw Clark dish the ball to her teammates was even more impressive. Mulkey likely wanted the ball out of Clark’s hands.
However, the 12 assists were proof of her ability to thread the needle and keep the offense rolling.
“That’s what the great ones do,” Mulkey said. “I think they had a kid that scored 21 and 18, she had 12 assists. Caitlin Clark’s not going to beat you by herself. It’s what she does to make those other teammates better that helps her score points and them score points to beat you.”
Despite falling short to a legend and her squad, Mulkey was proud of her team’s pace and ability to take the early lead. Unfortunately, the breaks don’t always go your way.
“We shot the ball almost 20 times more than they did,” Mulkey said. “So that’s the pace I’m talking about. Then you look at that second and especially the third quarter where we just missed shots. You’ll dissect things like that. Yeah, I could probably tell you a bunch of things you’ll dissect X’s and O’s-wise. Reverse the ball, just a little bit tougher in the moment, depth. I mean, you can just sit and talk all day about the game.
“Only one team finishes the season happy, and boy, we got to do that last year. Somebody will get to do it this year. But everybody else is going to come up here and be sad. You know, there’s nothing wrong with being sad. If you’re not sad, that means you didn’t invest much. So those tears are tears of investment.”
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