NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 2 SEMIFINAL - LSU VS UTAH

March 24, 2023

Kim Mulkey

LaDazhia Williams

Angel Reese

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

LSU Tigers

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

LSU 66, Utah 63

Q. Angel, did this feel like a statement win for you guys after your schedule has been criticized and stuff all season?

ANGEL REESE: We always play the underdog role, so just going into this game and just proving everybody wrong, we knew what we had. But of course the media is going to do what they do, but we do what we do. And I think we fought hard all four quarters. We've been through so much from the beginning to the end, so I'm just super happy for this team.

Q. Angel, how dramatic was that finish? How back and forth, up and down was it? How did you handle your emotions going forward and fighting to the end?

ANGEL REESE: Just trying to, like you said, keep my emotions together. It was tough. When I got that fifth foul, I was upset with myself for sure, but I trusted my teammates. My teammates have been in situations, especially in practice, where I'm not on the court, and they have to do last-minute situations, so I'm super proud of the team. Alexis and LaDazhia stepped up as seniors, so I'm just super happy for the leadership that we had tonight.

Q. LaDazhia, you're next to two people who don't mind talking. I take it this is probably not your favorite thing to do. When Angel got the second foul early in the second quarter and had to go to the bench, did anything go through your mind in terms of I need to do more, I need to help this team out? Would you say this was your best game you've ever had?

LADAZHIA WILLIAMS: Yeah, I would say that it was my best game I've had, and being a senior, I'm not ready to go home. We already know where we want to go, and Angel getting in early foul trouble, I felt like I needed to step up as a senior and just be a leader on the court and just do what I can for my team.

Q. What worked so well for you? It seemed like early on you were making the shots around the basket, then you started hitting the jump shots. Their coach said they let you get into a rhythm. Was that how you felt, you weren't missing? How was the confidence?

LADAZHIA WILLIAMS: My confidence was an all-time high tonight, I believe. And Coach Mulkey she always tells me that high post shot is my shot and to take it, and I work on that every day in practice. So I was just shooting the ball with confidence tonight.

Q. Did you feel it in warmups? You knew that it was there, or did it come to you in the game?

LADAZHIA WILLIAMS: I would say it just came to me in the game. Being a senior, I didn't want this to be my last game, and I just wanted to do anything that I could to extend our season and help the team out when we were in foul trouble. I would just say I just felt it as the game was going on.

Q. For both of you, what did you think of her outfit tonight?

LADAZHIA WILLIAMS: We already told her this is probably her best 'fit.

ANGEL REESE: She always comes. The whole staff be coming trim. They all be fly. Nobody be liking. They all try to outdo each other.

KIM MULKEY: I do not go pick these things out. New Brand is the name of the stylist, and she's shipping another one when she saw we won tonight. Most of the time I wear Queen of Sparkles. Look, we're from Louisiana, we like sparkles, we like diamonds, we like Mardi Gras, we like to eat and we like to party. So I'm filling the bill for my home state.

Q. When you transferred to LSU, could you have imagined this, the Elite 8, 31 wins, all that? Did you think, this could be quite a ride or what were you thinking?

LADAZHIA WILLIAMS: I mean, I knew playing for a Hall of Fame coach, we were going to get something done. We work hard every day in practice, and we listen to what she's got to say, and we put in the work. I'm not really too surprised. This is year two, and we're making a statement. We just want to keep making statements.

Q. What did you see from Da and also when Alexis had the ball at the end, what's going through your mind?

KIM MULKEY: Seniors. I complimented them in the locker room afterwards. I said it in the previous press conference. Seniors. I can't describe it to you. They don't want to take that jersey off for the last time. It's the worst feeling in the world. That includes those that get to play pro ball.

There's something about a college atmosphere. There's something about a college team. The greatest years of your life. Those two kids played big time. Alexis didn't shoot it particularly well early, but big-shot Alexis, she hit the big three. We didn't shoot it particularly well. One was 0 for 3, 0 for 3, 0 for 7, three starters sitting over there by me.

I just thought it was two heavyweights going at it, and that's what I told their coach after the game. I said, somebody had to win and somebody had to lose. We just made a few more plays. But so much respect because that team guards you. We will guard you. Everybody thought it was going to be this track meet. They average this, we average that.

At the end of the day, if you're a basketball junkie, you had to enjoy some of that going on tonight because neither team turned it over a lot. We were pushing, we were shoving, they were pushing -- you're just battling. You're trying to win a ball game.

Q. Was it hard controlling the emotions there at the end? There were so many swings back and forth in this one.

KIM MULKEY: Well, I'm very passive on the sideline anyway, so I mean, I was under control and didn't bother me a bit. Did it bother y'all?

I've been, gosh, doing this so many years. I've seen so many endings. I've lost National Championships with seven-tenths of a second on the clock. I've watched offensive fouls called that take the ball out of your hands. I did not see Angel's block. I thought it was a block. I didn't see it, and I can't find the video. They took off with it.

So yeah, you go from a high to what did you just call? Sure. But I've been a part of those for more than I care to write about.

Q. Kim, you said a lot of times this is not a Final Four team. I know you're not in the Final Four, but what do you say right now?

KIM MULKEY: We're still building. We're still overachieving. We've only won games. We haven't won championships. I didn't come to LSU to win games. I want to win a championship some day. Is that going to take away from the excitement of our fans and our institution and our players who have never been to an Elite 8? Are you kidding me? No.

I'm going to celebrate with them because it is a big deal. LSU program has been to Final Fours. To do it again as quickly as we've done it is ridiculous, really. It's not my great coaching that got us there. Honestly, it's the transfer portal. The transfer portal affects everything in basketball now.

I said this to some selection committee people. We got a 3 seed because of our non-conference schedule. Let's just lay it out there. Okay? Did anybody on that committee realize that when I put that schedule together I didn't have Angel Reese and I didn't have Kateri Poole and I didn't have the pieces?

Well, they'd better start thinking like that now because a lot of teams that had all the pieces got hurt from the portal. They lost starters. And they went and overscheduled. Darned if you do, darned if you don't. Don't penalize teams -- back in my day, you wouldn't watch games. I hadn't seen a committee member at one of our games this year. Costs money, I guess.

But I'm saying all this to tell you, the transfer portal affects everybody, good, bad, decisions that are made. It's here to stay, whether we like it or not. But that has helped us reach this point. We've got nine new pieces including freshmen that have helped us jump-start this program fast.

Q. Some of your players said it felt like a game in the PMAC with the fans and Brian Kelly making the trip, Matt McMahon. You had a lot of support here tonight. Just your thoughts on that?

KIM MULKEY: Well, I didn't think I felt like it because in the PMAC I can't hear myself in huddles. I could hear myself tonight. The enthusiasm, the people that flew in here on their private planes, commercial planes, drove in here. We'll have buses coming from LSU, it's my understanding, student buses, now for the championship or the Elite 8 game, I should say, to get to the Final Four. That makes you feel good, and you don't want to let them down.

Had we lost, I would have held my head high. Those kids would have been disappointed but I would have told them, hey, look around. Think about what you've done for LSU.

It was great to see Brian and Matt. I brought them out on the floor. Brian is in the middle of spring ball, isn't he? For him to make the effort to come out here -- now, I don't want him getting mad if his quarterback misses something that he needed to teach him today, but that quarterback should have been watching our game, right?

Q. I just talked to Lex in the locker room and she said she had déjà-vu from the last time you guys were here. When you called that time-out, did you have the same reaction?

KIM MULKEY: Well, the déjà-vu wasn't -- last time we were here, it was our inability -- we didn't execute. We didn't set the right pick going straight from that. This déjà-vu was on the defensive end when you had the lead, so it was a little bit different.

But the fact that it was close, I think it was like, are you kidding me? Maybe that was the déjà-vu she's talking about.

Q. You had three players foul out tonight. Did you feel like this game was called tighter than maybe you saw during SEC play, or was it just extra physical?

KIM MULKEY: I think both -- I said it. Both teams, heavyweights. They're out there, we're getting after it, they're getting after it. I just have so much respect when I leave the floor, when I win or lose, when I see people teach defense. I learned from the best in the business, Leon Barmore, Pat Summitt. You didn't get on the floor if you didn't guard people.

And we want to become better defensively. I thought they guarded us, I thought we guarded them. I thought it was -- I'm not going to tell you an entertaining game, but if you're a basketball junkie, there was some good stuff done in that game from a coaching standpoint on stressing defense, rebounding, play within yourself. You had some different players step up. It was two heavyweights going at it.

I thought our bench, even though we didn't hit shots, our bench helped us. I thought Poa -- you have to talk about Poa. She didn't get many minutes the previous game, but Poa goes in and Sa'Myah Smith got a few more minutes tonight. I think we need to acknowledge their play, as well.

Q. Angel has talked about LaDazhia's footwork in the past and just her up and under move tonight was really a difference maker. Could you kind of tell me what you see there?

KIM MULKEY: Well, LaDazhia, she has tremendous -- she does, her footwork is good. She's going to bait you. She's going to look around. Then when she sees an opportunity to give you that up-and-under move or give you a move where she can take that extra step, she can do it one-on-one.

I think the high post shot, she hasn't shot that enough all year, and the reason she hasn't is because we've been able to get it to Angel all year.

But tonight, they wouldn't let us get it in there to Angel, and they can shoot that shot. It's a beautiful shot. I'd like to take credit for those things, but LaDazhia, this is her only year with me, so I can't take credit for it. I don't know if it goes back to the previous institutions that coached her or high school or summer ball. But her stock is rising. If the WNBA hasn't noticed what she's done in big-time games, then I don't know what they're looking for.