Kim Mulkey's LSU women's basketball team suffered its second straight loss on Monday night, when the Tigers were upset by Mississippi State 77-73 in Starkville. During her postgame press conference, Mulkey made it clear exactly what — and who — she believes is to blame for LSU's misfortunes.
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"We can't seem to defensive get stops with this team when they matter. That's how we lost the South Carolina game," Mulkey told reporters. "You have to make stops at this level. And we don't seem to be doing it."
Mulkey was then asked what specific aspects of the defense are causing the most problems, to which she responded, "Where did all the scoring come from? Who scored all the points for [Mississippi State] tonight? What positions?"
The answer is Mississippi State's guards.
Senior starting point guard Jerkaila Jordan scored a game-high 24 points for the Bulldogs. And Mississippi State's next two-highest scorers were guards who came off the bench: Darrione Rogers (19 points) and Mjracle Sheppard (12 points).
So, over 71% of Mississippi's points during the upset win were scored by those three guards.
While Mulkey didn't offer an immediate answer to her rhetorical questions, she did allude later in the press conference to poor defensive play from her guards — and mentioned that their issue is speed-related.
"We don't have the fleet-of-foot guards out there that can make up for things when they get beat off the dribble," Mulkey said. "So we got to do a better job of helping each other out."
Mulkey didn't call out any of her guards by name — but LSU starting guard and Louisville transfer Hailey Van Lith is one certain culprit.
Van Lith struggled on both ends of the court Monday evening. That was made evident by her confused reaction to a play that Mulkey drew up during a timeout, and which didn't take long to go viral.
Mulkey's postgame "fleet-of-foot" comments, Van Lith's stats, and that mid-game confusion between the two make it clear that there isn't complete cohesion between LSU's coach and her starting guard at the moment.
Yet, all is not lost for LSU this season. Even after this second consecutive defeat, the Tigers still hold an 18-4 record and boast some of the country's most-talented players on their roster. Whether they'll be able to contend for a national championship remains to be seen. But regardless of how this season ends, we can expect to see Mulkey recruiting some faster guards very soon.
