LSU women’s basketball Kim Mulkey knew she wanted to get Angel Reese close to home this season. And Coppin State University made that happen.
The four-time NCAA title-winning coach brought her star player to West Baltimore, MD to take on the MEAC squad on Wednesday night. She didn’t know a lot about CSU or the MEAC as a whole, but she came away impressed.
“We don’t hear a lot from this league because you got all the SWAC schools and then you got Southern right there in Baton Rouge,” Mulkey said. “They did it up right and everything was just wonderful. I know you worry about the noise outside noise. Angel coming home, she got to see her brother play last night. You worry about it. We’re all leaving. We’re dispersing here and going home for the holidays. You worry about them focused on the game and, I know it would be a great crowd, because I was told that it was sold out. And it’s different for women’s basketball.”
Mulkey said it was important to play the game there because it is the hometown of Angel Reese, but stated that it wasn’t a sure thing because of how difficult scheduling is.
“It doesn’t always work out. It’s just hard scheduling,” Mulkey said. “Other than recruiting, scheduling is the second hardest thing to do in college athletics because you can’t find a date that you agree on. And we were just grateful that we could work it out.”
In addition to talking about the visit to Baltimore, Mulkey let the cat out of the bag about something similar she has planned for another member of her team.
“We’re going Dozier City next next year for Mikayla Williams,” Mulkey said, “so we’ll play another historically black college and university in Grambling there.”
Kim Mulkey also revealed an idea that she has had in mind for quite some time involving the HBCU that LSU shares a city with – Southern University.
“I’ve always wanted to go play on our football field at LSU and invite Southern to play us and give them the proceeds from the sellout and let them use that for NIL money.”
That may or may not happen, but Mulkey reiterated she was happy that Coppin State had an open date at the right time of the year.
“It just so happens that Coppin had an open date and they were so appreciative. And that’s what you want. I would say probably the majority of people out there came to see Angele Reese and LSU because a lot of them won’t ever come back, probably unless their child or their relative is played. But maybe tonight they will gain some fans and they’ll come back and go, ‘Wow, that was a lot of fun,” she said. “Maybe there’s some little girl out there that lives around here, and Coppin State is where she’ll go to school and play ball. So it was just finding a place to play and, Coppin State just happened to be the one that was on the phone and we got it done.”
Kim Mulkey also praised the work Angel Reese has done in her home town.
“Angel has come back to Baltimore and done a lot of wonderful things, and this means a great deal to her. And because it means a great deal to her, it means a great deal to us as a program. Her teammates get to see this. And it was just a good night.”