Kim Mulkey questions the purpose of conference tournaments as LSU stars deal with injuries

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Kim Mulkey likes to win. She likes to win at any time and in any place, in any format and in any venue.

But after seeing one of her star players — All-SEC forward Aneesah Morrow — exit LSU’s SEC Tournament semifinal loss to Texas with a foot injury, she isn’t really sure why conference tournaments are still a thing. Mulkey, who won 11 Big 12 Tournaments during her tenure at Baylor, doesn’t see the point or validity in them any longer, at least in women’s college basketball.

“I’ve won a bunch of conference tournaments. Everybody loves to win. Everybody loves to get a trophy,” Mulkey said. “But at the end of the day, I’ve also been in those tournaments where I had injuries. Those kids couldn’t go on and play in the most important tournament, the NCAA Tournament. I don’t know why we play them, to be honest.”

Mulkey added: “I know sometimes you have a Cinderella on the men’s side, but very rarely do you see a Cinderella on the women’s side at a (Power 4) level. You got to play, but I’ve never been a fan of conference tournaments. To me, it’s too long. If you have conference tournaments, do we really need all 16 teams in the conference tournament? I don’t know. They don’t care what we think, right? Administrators make all the decisions. We just give an opinion. They either like it or they don’t.”

Morrow, who will likely be an AP All-American this season and leads the nation in rebounding, went down early in the third quarter and had to be helped off the court. She later returned to LSU’s bench wearing a padded boot on her left foot and did not reenter the game as the Tigers fell 56-49 to the Longhorns.

After the game, Mulkey said that Morrow “re-aggravated a mid-foot sprain” she suffered earlier in the season. She’s the second LSU star to have to grapple with a lower-body injury this month. Point guard Flau’Jae Johnson has missed the last three games while dealing with inflammation in her shins.

Johnson and Morrow are LSU’s two leading scorers this season, averaging 18.9 and 18.5 points per game, respectively. With them, LSU has looked like one of the best teams in the country — one that has piled up a record of 28-5 this season that has locked up hosting rights for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

But without them, the Tigers could find themselves in the crosshairs of an upset in March Madness.

Despite her ire for conference tournaments and frustrations with her players getting hurt, Mulkey assured folks in the postgame press conference that Morrow and Johnson will be back for the NCAA Tournament.

“Oh, yeah, (Morrow) can go. She can go for the (NCAA) tournament. She was ready to come back out there,” Mulkey said. “Win or lose, we have playoffs hosting. Flau’Jae will be back. Everything is good... We have everybody.”