By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
LSU and Grambling played a women’s basketball game Sunday afternoon in Bossier City at Brookshire Grocery Arena that was much more an event that it was a competition.
There was no question who would win. The No. 5-ranked, 10-0 LSU Tigers were going to steamroll the nearby Grambling Tigers, who were winless against seven Division I teams (all from higher-ranked conferences) and who played close to home for the first time since their Nov. 4 season-opening romp over Centenary.
LSU did. Final score, 100-54. The only drama: would LSU get to triple digits? It happened with a half-minute left.
There was no doubt about LSU’s main attractions: Bossier City native, Parkway High superstar and last year’s Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year Mikaylah Williams, playing 3.9 miles from her alma mater; and her coach, Kim Mulkey, whose statue stands on the Louisiana Tech campus in recognition of her great playing career (two national championships, four Final Fours, a 130-6 record, a 1984 USA Olympic gold medal) and incomparable coaching run as an assistant at Tech (430-68, seven Final Fours, the 1988 NCAA title under Leon Barmore), followed by 733 victories (and counting) as a head coach in 25 seasons, including national championships at Baylor (2005, 2012, 2019) and at LSU (2022, in her second season) near her hometown of tiny Tickfaw, just south of Hammond.
That was reason enough nearly every one of the 8,299 attending came from near and far, not remotely dissuaded by a drizzle or a 2 o’clock Sunday afternoon tip time.
Then add the unique aura of LSU women’s basketball, developed under Mulkey’s vision with Shreveport native and Evangel graduate Jennifer Roberts directing the program’s NIL packaging. It has produced stars like just-graduated Angel Reese, one of the flamboyant figures whose style and performance elevated the game’s profile, and junior guard Flau’Jae Johnson, whose All-SEC level play is matched by her off-court flair (as a rapper on the Roc Nation label with NIL earnings over $7 million and her NIL valuation tops among NCAA women’s hoopers).
The crowd size was one thing. The crowd’s enthusiasm, and the postgame surge by kids and adults to mingle on court with the LSU team and commemorate their interactions, was predictable.
“I don’t know if any of y’all have seen a crowd like this,” said Mulkey. “Back in the Lady Techster days, when I played in Ruston, you couldn’t get a ticket. That was an outstanding crowd today. I know it’s because of Mikaylah, and I also know it’s because of the success of the LSU program because we don’t come to north Louisiana to play very often.”
They came because of a recruiting promise Mulkey made, and because the LSU coach’s heart tugged her back into the 318 area code, where she lived for 19 years playing and coaching for the Lady Techsters in Ruston, staging a homecoming to showcase Williams and the Tigers.
“As soon as I committed,” said Williams, “coach Mulkey said, ‘I’ve gotta get you home (for a game).’ That’s one of the things I love about coach Mulkey, that she cares about everybody on the team. I’m really grateful (to play at home).”
It wasn’t a first for Mulkey, dating back to her days at Baylor. Last year LSU played in Baltimore to celebrate Reese. There’s an upcoming game in Chicago for senior Aneesah Morrow. But this one, Mulkey admitted, was special for her, too.
“I try to go play in the hometown area of the players on our team. It’s hard to do sometimes, because you can’t find someone who will play you. It is an event for those young ladies, but what makes this a little different is I’m from Louisiana,” she said. “I spent a great majority of my life in north Louisiana. Both my children were born in Ruston. I have fond, fond memories. I don’t know any more what I call home – home is the whole state, is the way I view it.
“There’s people out there (in the arena) from Grambling, from Simsboro, from Arcadia, from Ruston that came here because they hadn’t seen me in years, and that’s touching to me.”
The postgame adoration finally forced arena officials to announce that if fans didn’t depart, security would ask them to leave. At on-campus venues, and back home around LSU, there are fewer, if any, restrictions.
“What you see out there is their life every day in Baton Rouge,” said Mulkey. “When we go on the road in the SEC, we carry police officers with us, because they are, for the lack of a better word, maybe celebrities. The brand, and how they’re promoted, and how good they are, our success – you’ve got Flau’Jae that’s a rapper, Mikaylah as the No. 1 recruit in the country, you’ve got so many intangibles with this team, you let them enjoy it.
“You let them realize, ‘you have an obligation to go out there and sign that autograph, and to take that picture.’ We’ve stayed in gyms for hours after ballgames because for some of them today in that audience, that’s the first time they’ve ever seen us play (in person). What kind of impression did we leave? That’s why we do that.”
Williams, a few months after her 19th birthday, gets it like her 62-year-old coach does. She gracefully and happily embraced the attention, smiling broadly for every one of the countless selfies and autograph requests with little kids, longtime friends and loyal fans as her parents, Pat and LaTonya Williams, watched from the stands behind the LSU bench.
“I recognized a lot (of people on the court postgame),” she said. “My elementary PE teacher was there, she came and spoke. A lot of classmates, a lot of teachers, and I’m just glad that they came out and I got to see some familiar faces, and that they’re still supporting me and still have my back.”
At the finish of her team-high 26 minutes of playing time, with exactly a minute remaining in the rout, Williams got summoned to the bench, but was stopped near midcourt by her coach, who knows how to create memories. Many in the crowd stood and cheered. Almost sheepishly at first, she waved and smiled.
“I took her out so the crowd could all acknowledge her,” Mulkey said. “I just told her she needed to take a look around this arena. They’re here for her and what she means to this area of the state.”
Her 16 points, 5-10 shooting, six rebounds, five assists, three steals and even two blocked shots were almost an afterthought – “I thought she had a good all-around game,” said Mulkey.
It’s so much more than just her basketball performance that makes Williams a magnetic figure – locally, on the LSU team, and quickly emerging this year, nationally in the college game.
“She’s a young lady that wants to please you,” said Mulkey. “She never wants to mess up. She wants to be perfect. She wants to be great. That’s Mikaylah’s mentality, and you love that as a coach as long as they don’t take it out of perspective.”
Williams is managing that perspective, and sees a bigger opportunity in her life away from home.
“I just want to inspire kids to play basketball because women’s basketball is growing. We’re ‘in’ right now, so I want every little girl to want to work hard and want to be a basketball player so I could be glad to be able to impact her life.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com