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Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
After every week of hypothesis about whether or not coach Kim Mulkey would keep on the Baylor Lady Bears program she constructed right into a powerhouse or go to at least one that wants its luster restored, the ladies’s basketball world acquired the reply Sunday: Mulkey is headed to her home state of Louisiana, replacing Nikki Fargas because the LSU Tigers‘ head coach.
However like a pebble tossed into the water, Mulkey’s transfer brings a ripple impact. Besides it is extra like a boulder hitting the water. Her resolution to depart Baylor after 21 seasons and three nationwide championships has a serious impression on two Energy 5 conferences and supplies a second act as a head coach for Mulkey, who might be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame subsequent month.
Mulkey is without doubt one of the greatest personalities in school sports activities. She’s recognized for talking her thoughts, which at instances has created controversy, whether or not it was suggesting a Final Four without COVID-19 testing final month or defending Baylor following a sexual assault scandal involving the varsity and its soccer program in 2017.
However no matter she did or stated, Baylor followers at all times appeared to have her again. They beloved her, and for good cause. She lifted their program from irrelevancy, having by no means made the NCAA event, to being a constant nationwide championship contender. Mulkey grew to become iconic to her program at Baylor, simply as UConn‘s Geno Auriemma (11 NCAA titles), the late Pat Summitt of Tennessee (eight) and Stanford‘s Tara VanDerveer did. Mulkey and VanDerveer are the one different Division I girls’s coaches with three or extra nationwide championships. Auriemma is 67 and VanDerveer, whose Cardinal gained the 2021 NCAA title earlier this month, might be 68 in June. It appears inconceivable that both would go away for an additional job.
Some probably thought the identical about Mulkey, who turns 59 in Could. However Mulkey grew up about 50 miles from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, residence of LSU. Mulkey’s son, Kramer Robertson, performed baseball for the Tigers. Her daughter, Makenzie Fuller, has been on Mulkey’s workers at Baylor. Each Makenzie and Kramer had been born in Ruston, Louisiana, when Mulkey was on Louisiana Tech‘s workers.
This has been known as a homecoming for Mulkey, however there additionally has been hypothesis that she might need been pissed off with the Baylor administration over points comparable to whether or not the brand new basketball enviornment might be constructed on campus.
Mulkey is scheduled to talk with the media Monday and is anticipated to handle why she determined to make such a monumental change at this stage of her life and profession. However for now, we have a look at the impression her departure has on Baylor and the Massive 12, what her transfer means for LSU and the SEC, and which coaches is perhaps in line to take over the Woman Bears.
What’s subsequent for Mulkey and LSU?
The quick reply: success. We do not understand how lengthy it is going to take, however it is going to occur. It at all times has together with her. As a participant at Louisiana Tech, Mulkey gained an AIAW title and NCAA championship, and her groups had been 130-6. In 1984, she gained Olympic gold with the US. Louisiana Tech remained a nationwide energy whereas she was an assistant to Leon Barmore, profitable the 1988 NCAA title. When he introduced he was retiring in 2000, everybody assumed Mulkey — a 15-year assistant at her alma mater — was the inheritor obvious.
Mulkey has at all times stated (and wrote in her autobiography) that she needed a five-year contract, however Louisiana Tech solely provided 4. It won’t appear to be that will be a deal-breaker, nevertheless it was to Mulkey. As an alternative of taking on at Louisiana Tech, she left for Baylor, changing her former Woman Techsters coach Sonja Hogg in Waco.
There was no custom at Baylor to lure recruits, so Mulkey needed to promote her personal success. It labored spectacularly. She was 632-104 at Baylor, with a dozen Massive 12 regular-season titles and 11 league event championships. The whole lot that Baylor girls’s hoops has grow to be began with Mulkey’s arrival.
LSU reached its pinnacle with 5 consecutive journeys to the Remaining 4 from 2004 to ’08, however the Woman Tigers misplaced within the semifinals yearly. Longtime LSU assistant Pokey Chatman was key in recruiting the gamers on these groups, together with superstars Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles. Chatman took over as LSU’s interim coach in 2004, when head coach Sue Gunter was ailing. Chatman then stayed on as head coach by way of March 2007, when she instantly resigned amid allegations of an affair with a former participant.
Van Chancellor led the Woman Tigers to the final of these Remaining 4 journeys in 2008. However in his final three seasons and Fargas’ 10, LSU has not gotten previous the Candy 16 and has completed higher than fourth within the SEC simply 3 times. This previous season, LSU went 9-13 general and 6-Eight within the SEC.
This is not a moribund program, nevertheless it has grow to be a mediocre one, no less than in SEC phrases. That sounds harsh, nevertheless it has been painful for LSU followers to check the previous a number of years to the glory days. That is why they’re so enthusiastic about Mulkey.
Three of LSU’s high six scorers, led by Khayla Pointer, are scheduled to return for 2021-22, and we’ll see what occurs with the ever-active switch portal. Briefly, Mulkey might have LSU again on its toes fairly shortly.
The college is outwardly prepared to pay handsomely to make that occur. Mulkey was making a reported $2.27 million per season at Baylor, a personal college. That’s believed to be second to Auriemma’s $2.four million per season amongst Division I girls’s basketball coaches, and greater than 3 times Fargas’ wage.
What does it imply for the SEC?
The SEC has historically been the most effective leagues in girls’s hoops. South Carolina is the convention’s marquee program. The Gamecocks gained the 2017 NCAA title and are coming off their third Remaining 4 look underneath coach Daybreak Staley. Texas A&M‘s Gary Blair additionally has a nationwide championship as a head coach. Mulkey battled Blair’s Aggies for a few years earlier than Texas A&M moved from the Massive 12 to the SEC, in order that’s a rivalry renewed.
However a lot of the SEC has been in a training transition in current instances. Together with Mulkey becoming a member of the league this spring, two longtime assistants are new SEC head coaches: Johnnie Harris at Auburn and Shea Ralph at Vanderbilt. Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee are different SEC applications whose coaches have taken over within the final 4 years. And Georgia‘s Joni Taylor, the SEC’s coach of the 12 months this previous season, took over in 2015.
Ten of the league’s 14 applications have been to the Remaining 4, though for some that’s distant. Nonetheless, the SEC at all times has been within the girls’s hoops highlight. Including a coach with Mulkey’s résumé makes that even brighter.
What — and which coach — is subsequent for Baylor?
Mulkey’s departure feels crushing for this system, no less than initially. She introduced a lot confidence, fearlessness and swagger to Baylor. She gained with several types of groups, getting the most effective out of her star gamers like Brittney Griner but additionally out of her position gamers. Mulkey was, let’s assume, an entertaining presence on the sideline. She was outspoken and unapologetic, two qualities that are typically well-liked in Texas.
Nobody can observe Mulkey by attempting to be like her. Mulkey’s substitute might want to reduce his or her personal path. And truthful or not, the stress might be on to maintain up Baylor’s excessive success; the Woman Bears are No. four in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early rankings for 2021-22.
As talked about, Mulkey was close to the highest of ladies’s basketball teaching salaries, nevertheless it’s extremely unlikely her successor might be paid close to that a lot — until Baylor goes for a house run rent and tries to lure a really established Energy 5 head coach alongside the strains of Louisville’s Jeff Walz, whose wage this season was $1.475 million (though he and different Cardinals coaches took a 10 % pay reduce to assist offset COVID-19).
If Baylor does not get one of many present high head coaches, who is perhaps the principle candidates for the job?
The primary look is perhaps to Sytia Messer, Baylor’s recruiting coordinator and assistant coach to Mulkey the final eight years. She additionally has earlier head teaching expertise, having spent three seasons at Tennessee Tech. Contemplating the churn of the switch portal, Messer’s deep connections with present and potential Woman Bears is perhaps paramount. And at age 44, she is getting into her profession prime.
Additionally, if Baylor opts to remain in-house, Invoice Brock has been with this system for 17 years, together with 15 as affiliate head coach. He was a longtime junior school head coach. If Messer or Brock aren’t going with Mulkey to LSU, one or each may keep on in Waco.
If Baylor appears exterior the Energy 5, potential candidates embody:
Amaka Agugua-Hamilton: She has had two profitable seasons at Missouri State, reaching the Candy 16 this 12 months. Earlier than that, she spent six seasons at Michigan State.
Mark Kellogg: The Texas native has gone 140-43 in six years at Stephen F. Austin, together with 24-Three and 14-Zero within the Southland Convention this season.
Michelle Clark-Heard: This previous season, her third at Cincinnati, wasn’t nice (Eight-16). However previous to that, she had gained no less than 22 video games in six seasons at Western Kentucky and two at Cincinnati.
Jarrod Olson: He’s 211-71 in 9 years at California Baptist, together with 26-1 and 14-Zero within the Western Athletic Convention this season. The Lancers weren’t capable of compete within the NCAA event as a result of they’re nonetheless within the transition part for Division I. Baylor has had plenty of success with one other former Cal Baptist coach, Ryan McGuyre, who took the varsity’s volleyball program to the 2019 remaining 4.
What does Mulkey’s exit imply for the Massive 12?
Zero:45
After 21 seasons and three nationwide championships at Baylor, Kim Mulkey is leaving the Woman Bears to grow to be the top coach at LSU.
Baylor has introduced the league its biggest success, but on the identical time been a shadow over the convention’s different groups for the previous decade. Since 2010-11, Baylor is 187-9 in regular-season league play. Any time Baylor has misplaced to a Massive 12 opponent in that stretch, it has been enormous information. West Virginia (2017) is the one different program to win the Massive 12 event since 2011.
Can the Woman Bears sustain that profitable tempo with out Mulkey? If they do not, who’s poised to most profit?
Vic Schaefer simply completed his first season at Texas and reached the Elite Eight final month. Iowa State‘s Invoice Fennelly is the dean of the league’s coaches, and his Cyclones had been the one Massive 12 staff to beat Baylor this previous season. West Virginia and Oklahoma State, which completed tied for second within the Massive 12, hope they’ll proceed their success, regardless of dropping key gamers to the WNBA draft, as Texas did. Oklahoma completed sixth and has a brand new coach in Jennie Baranczyk, who changed Sherri Coale.
The Massive 12’s different 4 groups — Texas Tech, TCU, Kansas State and Kansas — all completed with dropping information in 2020-21. So it is a turning level for the Massive 12. Baylor has introduced the league most of its nationwide headlines for a very long time.