Mississippi State Basketball: How the Kim Mulkey hiring impacts the Lady Bulldogs and the SEC

Last week, Mississippi State Women’s basketball made headlines, officially adding the Hayes sisters to the roster in a much-needed roster rebuild by head coach Nikki McCray-Penson. The next week, LSU trumped Mississippi State by poaching three-time national championship-winning coach Kim Mulkey from Baylor. In that one single action, the road to turning around the once-proud Lady Bulldog program just became harder.

Who is Kim Mulkey

Kim Mulkey played high school and college basketball in the state of Louisiana. As a player, she was part of two national championship teams at Louisiana Tech in 1981 and 1982 and won the first-ever Women’s Naismith award in1984. She was the associate head coach on the 1998 Louisiana Tech national championship team. She became the head coach of Baylor in 2000.

Mulkey basically built the Baylor program from scratch over twenty-one seasons, winning three national championships, 12 Big 12 regular season titles, 11 Big 12 tournament titles, and a host of coaching awards. Mulkey is also in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Kim Mulkey Impact

LSU Hiring Kim Mulkey directly impacts the Lady Bulldogs because she is another high-profile and championship-winning coach. Mulkey and McCray-Penson have comparable playing careers, but coaching-wise, the scale now tips to LSU.  Mulkey takes over for Nikki Fargas, who left LSU, and she is currently negotiating to become the team president of the Las Vegas Aces.

Mulkey’s impact will be felt first on how the current roster adapts to her coaching style.  LSU is basically done on the recruiting front as Grace Hall leads the class of six signees during the early period. Mulkey does not inherit a heralded team as McCray-Penson did. She will work to turn around LSU quickly.

Kim Mulkey’s hiring also reenergizes the LSU women’s basketball program with the hometown girl comes home to fix the problem. Nikki Fargas was not a bad coach, but LSU’s program has slowly dropped from elite status in SEC. LSU also raised the stakes money-wise as Mulkey will earn $2.5 million this season

Mulkey’s salary makes her the highest-paid women’s coach in the SEC, topping Dawn Staley and on par with LSU basketball coach Will Wade. This fact means LSU is ready to invest big money into the women’s basketball program, and that is not good for Mississippi State.

The last and final impact is Mulkey is a strong recruiter, and while we do not know how this current team will mesh with her style, I am 100% sure she will recruit at a high level. Since 2017, Mulkey has signed 11 5 star prospects, and every signee since 2018 has been a 5star prospect. To see the older classes, visit the link and change the year.

The road to the top of the SEC for Nikki McCray-Penson just became a lot tougher. While she is a bonafide name in women’s basketball, she is not a big shark yet in the coaching ocean, and Mulkey is a big shark that just swam into her ocean.

Mississippi State has a win over Mulkey in 2017, a 94-85 defeat as Morgan William and Victoria Vivians combined for 65 points.

I will feel confident that coach McCray-Penson will turn around the Lady Bulldogs. It will take longer than most Bulldog fans expect. Coach McCray-Penson will have to continue to recruit her type of player to Starkville and coach them up. Either way, it should be an exciting season of SEC women’s basketball next season.