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What Kim Mulkey said after LSU women’s basketball’s exhibition win over East Texas Baptist

Will Rosenblatt
·4 min read
8

LSU women’s basketball took another step towards a new year last night with a 99-26 exhibition win over East Texas Baptist.

The Tigers did what you’d expect, dismantling an ETBU squad that can’t match LSU’s talent level.

For several highly-touted newcomers, it was the first time they got to showcase their skills in an LSU uniform. Among those were Louisville transfer Hailey Van Lith and top-ranked freshman Mikaylah Williams.

The Sa'Myah Smith hype continued to build with the forward posting a double-double. Flau'Jae Johnson led LSU with 18 points as she was one of six Tigers to score in the double-digits.

LSU will be back in action with one final exhibition on Nov. 1. Until then, here’s what Kim Mulkey had to say after LSU’s win.

On the lineup choices

The first-five that took the floor on Thursday night won’t be your typical starting five. Mulkey decided to roll with a starting five of all newcomers.

“I wanted to see the new ones,” she said. “I wanted to see them have an opportunity to start in an LSU uniform, because some may never until their turn comes.”

In the second quarter, Mulkey sent in the familiar faces before mixing it up in the third and fourth.

“I thought the first half, the first and second quarters, were better than the third and fourth quarters when I started mixing people that I think need to play together for us to beat some tough teams this year,” she said.

Mulkey said fatigue started to set in at the start of the second half.

“We had absolutely no discipline defensively in the second half,” Mulkey said.

Assist-to-turnover ratio

Mulkey wasn’t happy with the assist-to-turnover ratio which was just 16-18 on the night.

“That’s missing a lot of buckets, probably not making the extra pass to make it an easier shot for a teammate,” she said.

Mulkey said scoring isn’t the problem, but the fundamentals have to improve. Johnson and Kateri Poole tied for the team lead in assists, each with three.

On managing depth

Mulkey recognizes she has more options with this year’s roster than her previous one.

“It may be situations where I can play a lot of them, but it may be games where you go with the most experienced players you have, and maybe games where you go with the best defensive team if its a tight ball game,” she said.

Mulkey said the rotational decisions will hinge on the defense. She said she has about 10 players that can go out there and score easily, so it’ll be the defensive skill sets that create separation.

On Mikaylah Williams

Mulkey spoke about Williams, the crown jewel of this year’s signing class.

Williams physically ready to play, but there are some little things that need to be worked on, according to Mulkey. Mulkey discussed an instance where she pulled Williams from the game after a defensive mistake where Williams switched when she wasn’t supposed to.

“Just little things like that, that she can do at most levels, but you can’t do it here,” Mulkey said. “Even doing it tonight was not appropriate because it creates bad habits.”

Story originally appeared on LSU Tigers Wire