While the LSU Tigers women's basketball team cruised to a smooth 85-62 win over Vanderbilt on Thursday night, there was one moment when Kim Mulkey entered her own player's line of fire.
At one point in the third quarter, a rebound was headed towards the baseline when Tigers guard Flau'Jae Johnson lunged after the ball to save it from going out of bounds — which caused her to collide with her head coach.
Looks like a charge to me. https://t.co/Py2aBm6UpB pic.twitter.com/gDcRgAe0TO
— Reed Darcey (@byreeddarcey) February 9, 2024
Mulkey went sprawling backwards as a result of the impact, and likely would have fallen to the ground if she wasn't saved by the front row of seats.
The Tigers coach was clearly all right after getting back to her feet, and shared a moment with her star guard who waited around to ensure that Mulkey was okay before play resumed.
Then the incident became a laughing matter for Johnson once the game ended' proven by her commenting on the espnw's Instagram post of the collision, saying, 'She wanna be on the floor so bad ..?'.
In case it seems strange to see Mulkey standing on the baseline, Vanderbilt's Memorial Gymnasium is the only college basketball facility in the country that has the benches in opposite sides of the baseline. So although the LSU head coach looks out of of place standing where she was, Mulkey has no choice but to position herself there when her team plays at Vanderbilt.
While Mulkey didn't let the collision affect her focus when it occurred, she was able to joke about it after the game.
"I love that," Mulkey said when asked about Johnson chasing after the loose ball. "That's what you want them to do: Go for a loose ball. I'm fine. I'm sure I'll have bruises everywhere tomorrow when you have two stents and they have you on blood thinners...but I'm good to go. I loved it."
All's well that ends well.
The defending national champions are now back to their winning ways after suffering two straight losses in late January. With six regular season games remaining — none of which are against ranked teams — the Tigers seem poised to finish their SEC schedule strong before postseason play begins.
